Data Policy of the Black Sea Mnemiopsis Database

Within the Black Sea Mnemiopsis database we propose to use the similar data policy as the Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning EU Network of Excellence (MarBEF) uses (http://www.marbef.org/data/datapolicy.php).

The first guiding principle within this data policy is the principle of free and open access to data in a partnership approach. This is in line with data policy of other major organizations like the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), and with the Conference statement of the Ocean Biodiversity Informatics conference held in Hamburg, 29/11-1/12/2004.

A second guiding principle is that the scientist or team generating the data should have an opportunity to have first publication of the data, and analysis based on them. This will normally imply a moratorium period, in which the originator of the data or data steward will have privileged or exclusive access to the data. The start of the moratorium period is the time that data was produced (e.g. laboratory analysis, species identifications), not when the samples were taken. The moratorium period is two years for scientific data, but can be longer for long time series. Last but not least, the data policy of the originator of the data will take precedence over data policy of the Black Sea Mnemiopsis database. Black Sea Mnemiopsis database does not claim ownership of the data, only the participating institutes/organisations and/or the funder of the data collection will do this. Providers may decide to withdraw their data from the Black Sea Mnemiopsis database portal if they wish.

Terms of use of the Black Sea Mnemiopsis Database

By downloading or consulting data from this website, the visitor acknowledges that he/she agrees with the Black Sea Mnemiopsis database data policy, and agrees to the following:

• If data are extracted from the Black Sea Mnemiopsis database website for secondary analysis resulting in a publication, the Black Sea Mnemiopsis database website should be cited.
• If any individual datasource of Black Sea Mnemiopsis database constitutes a significant proportion of the records used in the secondary analysis (e.g., more than 10% of the data are derived from this source), the individual data source should also be cited.
• If any individual datasource of Black Sea Mnemiopsis database constitutes a substantial proportion of the records used in the secondary analysis (i.e. more than 25% of the data are derived from this source, or the data are essential to arrive at the conclusion of the analysis), the manager/custodian of this dataset should be contacted. It may be useful to contact the data source directly in case there are additional data that may strengthen the analysis or there are features of the data that are important to consider but may not have been apparent from the metadata.