Data submission

Data submissions
'''For the impatient user: use the PANGAEA Data Submission system (issue tracker).

Others are kindly requested to read the following instructions: ''PANGAEA is an archive for any kind of data from earth system research and thus has no special format requirements for submissions. Data might be submitted in the authors format and will be converted to the final import and publication format by the PANGAEA editors. The data provider is requested to keep some points in mind to minimize the preparatory work for data harmonization prior to upload.''

Costs: In case data are submitted through a project which has publication costs as part of the funding, PANGAEA would appreciate a financial contribution of 300.- € for a data supplement of a publication. Other forms/amounts of data contributions can be negotiated (not obligatory at this stage).

Metadata
Data are accompanied by the following metadata to assure its understanding. Mandatory fields are in bold.
 * Author(s); at least one author name (principle investigator) is mandatory
 * Data set title (similar to the title of a publication or the caption of a table)
 * Geographical coordinates of sampling/measurement sites/events in decimal degree or degree/decimal minutes
 * Date and Time for the sampling event
 * Source (which in most cases will be the institutes name)
 * Reference if data are supplementary to a publication or
 * Source/institute and extended abstract are mandatory if data are published as a citable data publication
 * Methods
 * Documentation e.g. methodological descriptions, quality control, parameter definitions, reports, further readings/information, other versions etc. as free text or pdf-file.

Format help

 * Preferred format for data tables is TAB-delimited TEXT-files (ASCII), submitted as ZIP-archive, or excel-format.
 * Several tables with different format should be provided on different sheets.
 * Several tables with identical format may be provided in one file (one data set below the other, event label in the 1. column).
 * Parameter name with unit must appear in the header line (PANGAEA parameter ID would be perfect).
 * Use proper event/site/sample labels, e.g. as defined during an expedition (if appropriate).
 * Format for positions (lat/long) should be degree/decimal minutes (65°45.7'S) or decimal degree (-65.1234) (S and W are negative).
 * Provide references by its DOI or (even better) as pdf; documentations should also be provided as pdf (documents will be stored in ePIC and linked via a handle.
 * Numeric parameter columns must contain numbers only; exception see quality flags.
 * Text parameter columns can be filled to a maximum of 255 characters per field.
 * If the result of a scientific analysis is zero, the corresponding field in the data table must be filled with 0 (and not left empty).
 * Fields without data should be left empty (and NOT filled with '-', 'n/a', -9999 or '*' etc).
 * Remove empty lines and columns; those will not be imported.
 * Avoid abbreviations.
 * Avoid redundant information.
 * Use standards as far as available
 * Care for proper geocodes
 * Use the decimal point.
 * Use the English language.

Responsibilities during the data publication workflow
Author/pinciple investigator:
 * 1) submission of data to the curator of the project or editor of PANGAEA,
 * 2) provision of metadata,
 * 3) proofread after import,
 * 4) scientific quality of the data,
 * 5) using data set DOI in publication as a reference/link to the primary data.

Curator:
 * 1) checking completeness of metadata and data consistency,
 * 2) import, check for availability and proof-read in Internet search,
 * 3) technical quality control,
 * 4) password protection (on request of the author),
 * 5) submit DOI to PI for proof read of data sets,
 * 6) corrections (iteration between curator and author until authors OK),
 * 7) final publication.

Examples
The following examples may give a first impression about the required information for data from specific scientific fields. The export formats may differ slightly. Please keep in mind, that the export format is dynamicaly produced by the relational database behind PANGAEA and thus it is NOT required to provide data submission in exactly this technical format; the content is the important part of the data submission.
 * Moorings with trap/current meter
 * Vertical oceanographic profile
 * Horizontal profile/ships track
 * Horizontal distribution of irregular distributed samples
 * Vertical profile
 * Bulk sediment parameter
 * Core logging, Physical properties
 * Hole logging
 * Mineralogy
 * Grain size
 * Pollen
 * Geochemistry
 * Porewater
 * XRF
 * Horizontal profile
 * Ships track data in general
 * Sediment seismic (e.g. ParaSound)
 * Geophysical profile
 * Reflection seismic
 * Refraction seismic
 * Magnetic
 * Gravimetry
 * Bathymetry
 * Profile versus relative distance
 * Speleotheme
 * Coral
 * Time series
 * Radiation
 * Biological measurements
 * Binary object, e.g. photos, images, graphics, files in special formats
 * Maps
 * Experiments
 * ff ...