SandyDuck '97 and DUCK94

Organization and Data Sharing Policy

Program Management

DUCK94 and SandyDuck evolved as a result of the guidance and support of the program managers from each of the sponsoring agencies. Initially this group included Dr. Linwood Vincent (US Army Corps of Engineers), Dr. Thomas Kinder (Office of Naval Research) and Dr. Asbury Sallenger (US Geological Survey). Later Mrs. Carolyn Holmes replaced Dr. Vincent.

Organization

Prior to DUCK94, the program managers appointed a four-person DUCK94 and SandyDuck Steering Committee consisting of Dr. Robert Guza (Scripps Institution of Oceanography), Dr. Tony Bowen (Dalhousie University), Dr. Ib Svendsen (University of Delaware) and Mr. William Birkemeier (US Army Corps of Engineers). Included among the responsibilities of this committee were the following:
  • Sort out overlapping objectives (with guidance from the program managers);
  • Refine the science focus and establish overall objectives and directions for the experiments and recommend priority areas for funding to the program managers
  • Schedule meetings and set experiment schedules
  • Integrate research activities and logistics
  • Establish other committees
  • Recommend a data sharing policy to the program managers

The SandyDuck Steering Committee appointed a six-person Logistics Committee to coordinate the considerable logistics required during the two experiments. The logistics committee consisted of Mr. William Birkemeier (US Army Corps of Engineers), Dr. Cheryl Ann Butman (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), Dr. Steve Elgar (Washington State University), Dr. Alex Hay (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Dr. Rob Holman (Oregon State University) and Dr. Edward Thornton (Naval Postgraduate School). This committee was charged with handling all aspects of logistics, planning, and resource management both prior to and during the experiments. (Note that Dr. Casey Church from the Naval Research Laboratory replaced Dr. Butman on the logistics committee after DUCK94).

Data Sharing

After considerable discussion concerning this topic, the following policy was developed by the Steering Committee with advice from the Logistics Committee. It offers protection of data by the collecting investigators, encourages collaboration, and provides for eventual public release. This policy requires:
  • Global release of all data in 3 years (a data archivist will aid this process);
  • Prior to each experiment, responsible investigators will be listed for each data set;
  • Prior to 3 years following each experiment, data would be shared by agreement between individual investigators;
  • Investigators using other investigator's data must discuss/send any manuscript to them prior to submission anywhere;
  • No third party data dissemination;
  • Principal Investigators control their own data.

In addition, investigators are required to share daily climatological data from their instruments for a specific hour during the experiment. These data will provide a real-time indication of what is being measured, and will serve as a quality check on all the instruments. It will also help to foster PI collaboration.