BACS Data Policy

• All investigators participating in BACS agree to promptly submit their final Quality Controlled data to the NCAR/EOL Field Data Archive (FDA) along with required dataset documentation at the latest within 12 months after the final data submission deadline to the EOL FDA (by 1 June 2025) to facilitate inter-comparison of results, quality control checks and inter-calibrations, as well as an integrated interpretation of the combined dataset. Data will be RESTRICTED for a total of 12 months (until 1 June 2026) so that Principal Investigators (PIs) may have exclusive access to the BACS data.
• During this restricted data access period, defined as the total of a 12 month period following the end of the BACS Final Data Submission deadline, BACS Principal Investigators (PIs) may have exclusive access to this data. This time period is designed to provide an opportunity to refine algorithms to reflect real-world observations and quality control the combined dataset as well as to provide the investigators ample time to publish their results. Data may be password protected or made publicly available upon the request of the data provider.
• All EOL platform and instrument data will follow the EOL Data Policy.
• All BACS data in the FDA will be considered Public Domain at 12 months following the end of the BACS final data submission deadline to the EOL FDA (i.e., on 1 June 2026 and thereafter). A dataset within the BACS archive can be opened to the public domain earlier at the discretion of the data provider for their particular dataset(s).  
• All data shall be promptly provided to other BACS investigators upon request. All BACS investigators will have equal access to all data. A list of BACS investigators will be maintained by NCAR/EOL and will include the Principal Investigators (PIs) directly participating in the field experiment as well as collaborating scientists who have provided guidance in the planning and analysis of BACS data.
• During the restricted data access period, the investigator(s) who collected the data must be notified first of the intent to use the data, in particular if data is to be provided to a third party (e.g., journal articles, presentations, research proposals, other investigators). It is strongly encouraged that PIs responsible for acquisition of data be invited to become collaborators and co-authors on any projects, publications and presentations. If the contribution of the data product is significant to the publication, the PIs responsible for generating a measurement or a data product should be offered the right of co-authorship. Any use of the data should include an acknowledgment (i.e., citation). In all circumstances, the PIs responsible for acquisition of data should be acknowledged appropriately. Following availability in the public domain, users of the data are strongly encouraged to contact the relevant PIs prior to incorporating it into peer-reviewed publications.
• International agencies, professional societies, and research organizations are moving towards requiring researchers to formally cite data and sources that led to a given research result. To support this, DOIs or Digital Object Identifiers (considered “perpetual” identifiers) will be assigned to FINAL datasets housed within the NCAR/EOL FDA. These DOIs should be used in BACS related publications. DOIs will not be created for preliminary data.