Research investigators, assistants and students who collect the data are responsible for data analysis, quality control, and documentation. Investigators may use any software for their own data entry and analysis but when data are ready to be submitted to the Arctic LTER database the metadata and data must conform to the required Arctic LTER format. This format follows the LTER network’s “EML Best practices”  and enables the dataset to be uploaded to the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI) data portal.

An Excel based metadata form is available for entering metadata and data. Comments and data validation lists for units, sites and number types are used extensively throughout the "Metadata" sheet to aid in entering the required information. Once completed the files are submitted to the either the terrestrial, streams, lakes, and landscape interactions research assistant, who check the files for completeness.  Once files are accepted they are placed in the appropriate online data directories and content created using the Arctic LTER web management system which is based on the Drupal Environmental Information Management System (DEIMS).  The dataset is then uploaded to the EDI data portal where a DOI is assigned and is searchable from the EDI data portal and from DataONE (a distributed network of data centers, science networks or organizations).

For researchers who do not use Excel a word document is also available for entering metadata with the data being submitted as comma delimited ASCII.  This Metadata Template is from the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI) and has similar fields as the Excel template.

For any additional questions email arc_im@mbl.edu