Governance

Information management at the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES) is run by the Information Management Committee (IMC), which meets two times a year. One meeting is held during the summer at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest near the time of the annual HBES cooperators' meeting. The other meeting is timed to coincide with the winter HBES Committee of Scientists meeting in January, usually at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY. Occasionally,  ad hoc information management meetings may be necessary and are scheduled accordingly.

Data Availability

Hubbard Brook data are available for download from the Environmental Data Initiative repository (EDI), and can be found by browse, search, or filter at  the Hubbard Brook Data Catalog. To enable discovery and usability of these data, the EDI submissions are prepared following the Best Practices for Dataset Metadata in Ecological Metadata Language (EML; https://ediorg.github.io/data-package-best-practices/EMLmetadata/). Dataset documentaion includes keywords aligned with controlled vocabularies (LTER, USDA Forest Service, and ISO 19115), fully described data table attributes, funding sources, and temporal, geographic, and taxonomic information. This detailed documentation, combined with features and services of the EDI repository, help to align our data with FAIR data practices (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable; Wilkinson 2016). EDI further publishes these data through the DataONE federation - at both EDI and DataONE, these data can be discovered via a sophisticated search interface and manually or programmatically downloaded. The EDI repository fully supports immutability and strong versioning of datasets with all older versions being available for auditing and reproducibility. Each dataset version is provided its own unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which is registered by DataCite and resolvable through the International DOI Foundation (IDF).

Data Use

The Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study adheres to the LTER network data access policy. The following text is included in every data package. A complete copy of the policy can be downloaded from the LTER website (https://lternet.edu/data-access-policy).

This information is released under the Creative Commons license - Attribution - CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The consumer of these data (“Data User” herein) has an ethical obligation to cite it appropriately in any publication that results from its use. The Data User should realize that these data may be actively used by others for ongoing research and that coordination may be necessary to prevent duplicate publication. The Data User is urged to contact the authors of these data if any questions about methodology or results occur. Where appropriate, the Data User is encouraged to consider collaboration or coauthorship with the authors. The Data User should realize that misinterpretation of data may occur if used out of context of the original study. While substantial efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of data and associated documentation, complete accuracy of data sets cannot be guaranteed. All data are made available “as is.” The Data User should be aware, however, that data are updated periodically and it is the responsibility of the Data User to check for new versions of the data. The data authors and the repository where these data were obtained shall not be liable for damages resulting from any use or misinterpretation of the data. Thank you

Data Citations

A citation for each dataset can be found on the dataset landing page on EDI. This citation contains a persistent identifier in the form of a DOI (digital object identifier), and should be included in any publication that makes use of the data. Publisher requirements for data citation can vary, and assistance in meeting these requirements is available from the Hubbard Brook Information Manager.

Data Submissions

The Hubbard Brook Information Manager is available to assist researchers in developing a robust data lifecycle plan, to result in high quality, well documented data ready for submission to EDI. For dataset submission instructions and metadata templates, contact the Hubbard Brook Information Manager.  Additional information that is helpful in this process can be found ion EDI's website.

#AcknowlegmentAcknowledgment of Hubbard Brook in publications

The following acknowledgement should be included when publishing datasets and papers:

"This work is a contribution of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study. Hubbard Brook is part of the Long-Term Ecological Research network, which is supported by the US National Science Foundation. The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is operated and maintained by the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station."

Physical Sample Archive

An archive facility was built at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest to store samples permanently so that they will be available for future research. The building now houses approximately 100,000 samples of soil, water, plant tissue, and other materials.  A description of the sample archive, and link to a searchable database can be found here: https://hubbardbrook.org/d/sample-archive-overview

Document Archive

The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY maintains a document archives of Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study publications and theses. Copies of publications and theses are also available at Pleasant View Farm for student use.  More recent material may be available through this website. Please check under publications and the photo gallery, and contact the Hubbard Brook Information Manager with assistance in locating material.