International Council for Science - World Data Center System

C. Contribution of Data to World Data Centers

1 World Data Centers receive data from individual scientists, projects, institutions, local and national data Centers, and other WDCs. The mechanisms for data acquisition include:

a. Routine monitoring programs, which may be operated by the agency that operates the WDC.

b. ICSU-sponsored scientific programs. Major programs should include a data management program, developed in consultation with the ICSU Panel on WDC, giving details of data to be submitted by participants to the WDCs or other appropriate Centers.

c. Statements or recommendations by international scientific organizations, approved by the ICSU Panel on World Data Centers, and published in the appropriate discipline section of the Guide to the WDC System.

d. The WDC Panel's "data rescue" program, which involves all parts of the WDC system and has two main aspects: (i) safeguarding older data sets which, for any reason, may be at risk of loss or deterioration; (ii) digitizing old data sets (e.g., geomagnetic and ionospheric data) to enable modern techniques to be used for their analysis.

e. Voluntary data contributions by agreement with a WDC. A WDC is not obliged to accept all such data offered to it.

2 Contributors are expected to provide data to the World Data Centers in specified formats with full documentation, preferably in computercompatible form, and to take responsibility for quality control of their data. World Data Centers can normally only undertake quality control for data sets or data products that they themselves generate, though they are encouraged to assist data producers and users to assess data quality.

3 WDCs do not pay for data on a commercial basis. They may offer other data or services in exchange for data, or agree to contribute to the cost of acquisition.