Data and Analysis Tool Sharing Policy

LaMNA is the banding data node of the Avian Knowledge Network (AKN) and as such, each person or institution contributing data or analysis tools to LaMNA is committed to sharing these resources with the AKN under the policy and terms described below. Click here to download a pdf copy of this "Data and Analysis Tool Sharing Policy".

LaMNA asserts that the monetary and intellectual investment, time committed to the collection of a data set and the knowledge generated from the analyses, entitle the investigator(s) responsible for data collection to the fundamental benefits of the work. Therefore, publication of descriptive or interpretive methods and results derived immediately and directly from the data, by the investigators or a third party, is the privilege and responsibility of the investigators who collect the data.

LaMNA acknowledges that ecological data are highly valuable and must be properly preserved for the purposes originally intended and for other purposes not necessarily anticipated by the data collector. Sharing data in a distributed database system such as the AKN improves data longevity by preserving datasets in more than one location. It also facilitates providing access to other investigators when the original data contributors decide it is appropriate. Such open access to data can greatly enhance our ability to understand patterns and dynamics of bird populations. LaMNA also acknowledges that additional documentation (the metadata) is needed to ensure the data can be properly understood and their quality and potential usefulness judged. In this document, preserving data is understood to imply also preserving the metadata.

LaMNA uses the AKN sharing levels:

• Level 1– Data owners request that their data are not exposed to the public in any form at all. LaMNA and the AKN act as external repositories.
• Level 2 – Data can be used in certain publicly available, predefined visualizations (i.e. maps and graphs – not for publication) by the AKN warehouse, LaMNA or a partner AKN node, but direct access to the data is restricted only to the data owner.
• Level 3 – Data can be used in certain publicly available, predefined visualizations, and the complete data set is available for download directly via the Internet upon prior written consent from data owner. The data owner may thus set terms for cooperation, such as co-authorship in publications.
• Level 4 – Data can be used in publicly available, predefined visualizations (i.e. maps and graphs), or available for download with prior consent by onwer. Additionally, owner agrees to make data available to existing bioinformatic efforts (GBIF and ORNIS). These bioinformatic efforts only provide the data for locations where observations where made and the number reported (summarized data).
• Level 5 – Data are used in publicly available, predefined visualizations (i.e. maps and graphs), and are available to existing bioinformatic efforts. Additionally, the complete BMDE data set is fully available - the data owner must be acknowledged in any publications where the data were used.

It is LaMNA policy that data should be shared whenever possible while considering the tradeoffs between widespread distribution of data sets, the need to assure data quality and validity, and the privacy rights of land owners, as applicable. LaMNA encourages its partners to anticipate that most data collected will become part of the public domain, and recommends that procedures be employed to facilitate this sharing, such as concurrent metadata generation, data verification (whenever possible), data entry, data backup, agreements and procedures for prompt data transfer and curation by LaMNA or a partner AKN node. Data for which there are no associated metadata should not be shared. LaMNA encourages members to share data 10 years old or older without restrictions (level 5 above).

LaMNA will encourage and facilitate the ethical and courteous use of data within its archives. LaMNA will maintain a record of all data access and will notify those who wish to access the data that these may be the intellectual property of a LaMNA partner. All those who wish to access data from LaMNA, regardless of the sharing level of the data requested, will be required to explicitly agree to these LaMNA data sharing terms and policy.

LaMNA seeks to promote knowledge generation by encouraging widespread unrestricted tool development and use, allowing collaborators to build upon existing tools. LaMNA encourages all tools to be developed as "open source." Developers are encouraged to use a general public license or other means to allow for the opportunity to request acknowledgement (e.g., in the form of citations) in publications using distributed copies or modified versions of an analysis tool, or to restrict any use of their products. It is LaMNA policy that new analysis and data visualization tools should be always shared as soon as possible.

LaMNA reserves the right to modify, revise or supplement this policy, as it deems appropriate.
Document developed August 2008 by L. Salas, G. Ballard, J. Alexander, and C.J. Ralph