NSF data management plan

From CSDMS

CSDMS can help with NSF requirement of a Data Management Plan

NSF requirements on Data Management

"Proposals submitted or due on or after January 18, 2011, must include a supplementary document of no more than two pages labeled “Data Management Plan”. This supplementary document should describe how the proposal will conform to NSF policy on the dissemination and sharing of research results. See Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) Chapter II.C.2.j for full policy implementation." Read More on NSF website: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmp.jsp


Data and Model Sharing

We have identified two key points from NSF-EAR data and model sharing policy specifically, that PI’s can (partly) address by using CSDMS services.
Feel free to quote these statements and collaborate with CSDMS on submission of your data.

1) NSF-EAR states: “Investigators are expected to share with other researchers, at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time, the primary data, samples, physical collections and other supporting materials created or gathered in the course of work under NSF grants. Grantees are expected to encourage and facilitate such sharing”. For the full document click here.

The Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System Integration Facility serves its members by making data relevant for modeling publicly available through the CSDMS data repository. CSDMS distinguishes between:

  1. model input and model boundary conditions data,
  2. model test data, and
  3. integrated datasets for model validation of coupled systems.

The CSDMS data repository features concise descriptions of the available datasets (i.e. the meta-data on the data subject, data format, data spatial and temporal coverage and its availability). The data repository already comprises of 11 categories ranging from hydrography to topography to human dimensions data. All data is open-access and freely downloadable. (See: data download).
CSDMS members can straightforwardly post their relevant datasets into the database with a form through the CSDMS wiki and through working with the CSDMS Integration Facility Staff. CSDMS strongly encourages its members to point to the data repository in their scientific publications and vice versa lists key references as apart of the metadata.

2) NSF-EAR states: “Investigators and grantees are encouraged to share software and inventions created under the grant or otherwise make them or their products widely available and usable”.

The Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System Integration Facility serves its members by making model open-source and available to the community through the CSDMS data repository.
CSDMS strongly advocates for open-source model development. CSDMS director James Syvitski explained it as follows: “Community modeling relies on open-source code to address the practical need of contributing developers to examine and modify the code. Open-source code provides complete information transfer. This transparency is important because code is the ultimate statement of the scientific hypotheses embodied in a numerical model, and their implementation.” (More details on the need for open-source modeling can found here.

CSDMS as of the end of 2010, hosts 164 of earth surface process models in its model repository. The CSDMS model repository features concise descriptions of the available models (i.e. the meta-data on the model, information on the developers, input data formats, the models spatial and temporal coverage, the model theory and key equations, its numerical schemes and the format of its output). All this information can be easily contributed and maintained by CSDMS members through an automated form/questionnaire on the CSDMS wiki. CSDMS advices model developers on open-source licensing, and streamlines the contribution of source code. The contributed model code is compiled and tested with associated model test files. If the code passes this simple test, the CSDMS Integration Facility Staff makes the model code available to the public for free download from the CSDMS HPCC. Additionally, CSDMS offers Subversion as a tool for source code version control among shared model developers.
CSDMS strongly encourages its members to point to the model repository in their scientific publications and vice versa lists key references as a part of the model metadata.