FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is PANGAEA ?
PANGAEA is a public library for data from earth system research. The system is open to any individual scientist or project, allowing for the archiving of single files, data collections, time series, or supplements to publications. Data can be georeferenced in time and/or space. Find out more about PANGAEA.

Who are the hosts?
PANGAEA is hosted by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and MARUM – Cen­ter for Mar­ine En­vir­on­mental Sci­ences, University Bremen.

Are there any restrictions in the data access?
Data stored in PANGAEA are published as open access and are thus freely available for download on the Internet. A few data sets might be password protected for a moratorium period; contact PI for access.

Under which license are data made available?
By default, data are made available under a Creative Commons license. CC-BY is the most commonly used license, but there are others you can choose from.

How long does it take to get a DOI?
During PANGAEA's editorial process, all data and metadata are quality checked, harmonized, and processed for machine readability, which allows efficient and reliable re-usage of your data. Depending on the extent and complexity of your data submission, the complete publication process might take up to 8 weeks or even more. Once data are published, the DOI can be minted. Therefore, submit your data at an early stage (e.g. before submission of a manuscript to a journal).

Can I make changes to my published dataset?
As long as your dataset is in the status "in review" or "registration in progress", changes to the data are possible. Once your dataset is published and the DOI is registered, changes to the dataset are no longer possible. If you have found errors in your published dataset, please open a new Data submission with the corrected data and state that this is a new version of your data. We will put access restrictions on the erroneous dataset and link it to the new version. Normally, a small comment (explanation) is added to the old version explaining what was wrong.

What is the data export format?
Datasets are downloadable as text/ASCII files, tab-delimited, with a header for meta information (ending is .tab, but you can open it in any text editor or in Excel just as .txt files). Large files may be available as binary objects (e.g. seismic data, models) or other formats that follow ISO standards (e.g. images, films).

Which languages can I use in my datasets
Please exclusively use english in your submitted datasets, not only for your headers but also for comments or method descriptions within your table. The only exception where you can use the original language is for citations of articles, which were not translated into english. Please use the original title then.

A downloaded dataset contains strange characters (e.g. [Âg/g]). What can I do?
If you download the dataset as tab-delimited text, you have to use the correct character encoding. PANGAEA default is UTF-8, but for your computer (operation system) it might be different. Try to select a different character encoding, so that the data is correctly displayed on your computer. The encoding can be selected to the right of the download option of a dataset ("Download dataset as tab-delimited text") where it says "use the following character encoding:"

What is the resolution of the data?
Data stored in PANGAEA stem from a wide range of parameters from all parts of the geosphere (atmo-, hydro-, cryo-, bio-, lithosphere). The spatial and temporal resolution can differ between sets and is described in the metadata. Examples: you can submit data from one day/several days (https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.778386), one month (https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.921529), one year (https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.272466), one campaign (https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.913181), from one region (https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.753970) or globally (https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.919662).

Which parameter (variables) are available?
PANGAEA contains data associated with over 180,000 parameters from all fields of earth system research. See the Parameter for details and example lists.

Where are the data stored?
Most of the data are stored in a relational database. Large binary files, images or proprietary formats are stored in a tape drive silo, requiring an access time of a minute. All data is secured by a daily backup on tapes, placed in two different buildings.

Can data be password protected?
Yes! For a moratorium (in general for a maximum of 2 years), a login with a password can be added to the data, e.g. until the research contents are published, a project has ended or at the request of the owner. See Terms of Use.

How to submit data?
Data needs to be submitted to PANGAEA via the data submission form. If you submit for the first time, please read our rules and recommendations for data submission first.

How can I add the metadata to the submission?
Metadata can be added in various ways. A lot of the metadata can be added as part of the data table (event label, latitude/longitude of your samples, date/time of sampling, full parameter names and units). Other metadata, such as related references, method details, authors, dataset titles etc., can be added in the submission form, either in specific fields (e.g. authors, references, abstract - in the description field) or as additional files (readme file as plain text or method descriptions as pdf, for example). If you are unsure how to submit the metadata, you can simply add a comment to your submission issue stating what metadata you wish to add. For a research campaign, it is also important that you add the campaign details (e.g. in the description or as a comment), such as start/end of a campaign, official campaign label, chief scientist, vessel name.

How can I get an overview about the status of my data submissions?
The JIRA Dashboard is a tool to gain overview over issues in JIRA ticket system, which PANGAEA uses for tracking of data submissions to PANGAEA ticket system. We provided a "ready to use" Dashboard, available for every user logged in PANGAEA. Check these instructions to see how to use and adapt the Dashboard to fit your specific needs.

Who should the authors be?
Authors of datasets are those individuals (scientists, technicians, students, and others) who contributed to the collection and processing of data. Data authors do not have to be the same as the authors of the paper that was published based on the data. The authorship of datasets should follow principles of good scientific practice (Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice of the German Research Foundation ).

How can I download multiple data files at once from a single dataset?
Some datasets in PANGAEA contain links to many files that need to be downloaded individually. This is how you can download multiple files from PANGAEA.

Are there any costs associated with publishing data in PANGAEA?
The basic operation is covered by public funding, but in order ensure a high quality in processing and archiving new data, PANGAEA receives additional funds. In case that data are submitted as part of a project for which funding is available for publication, PANGAEA would appreciate a financial contribution of 500.– € (net) for a data submission (e.g. as part of the costs for Open Access publications at the DFG). Other forms of funded collaborations can be negotiated. Please contact us for further information and invoicing.

How do I refer to a PANGAEA datset in my manuscript? (How to cite)
See data citation page for details

Contact
Contact us if you still have questions.