SAEON’s Vision: A comprehensive, sustained, coordinated and responsive South
African Earth observation network that delivers long-term reliable data for scientific
research and informs decision-making for a knowledge society and improved quality
of life.
To fulfill this vision SAEON has been mandated to archive environmental Datasets
to provide reliable long-term data that can inform scientific research and decision
making in the context of national and global environmental change. SAEON therefore
promotes the responsible archiving and broadest possible dissemination and re-use
of all environmental data, while respecting the legal rights of the Data User and
Data Provider.
List of Definitions
Definition
|
Meaning
|
Dataset
|
Digital data and its metadata.
|
Metadata
|
Information that describes a particular dataset. |
Data Provider
|
Individual or institution that holds Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) to the
dataset. Note that this may or may not be defined as legal copyright. In many instances
the IPRs belong to the organizations and not the individuals.
|
Data User
|
Individual to whom access has been granted to a Dataset, including his/her/its Associate
Collaborators.
|
Associate Collaborators
|
Institutions, partners, students and staff with whom the Data User collaborates,
and with whom access must be granted, in order to fulfill the Data User's intended
use of the Dataset. Associate Collaborators must be specified in the SAEON Data
User Agreement.
|
Gatekeeper
|
Individual or institution responsible for archiving and dissemination facilities.
|
SAEON Data Portal
|
An appropriate state-of-the-art electronic medium for the Archiving and Dissemination
or Publication of information such as an IT portal.
|
Archiving
|
The storage of data and information in a secure environment. Archived data are not
publicly available.
|
Dissemination/ Publication
|
The distribution of data and metadata in a form that is freely available to the
public.
|
SAEON Affiliated Data
|
Data produced by SAEON, by projects registered with a SAEON Node or the SAEON National
Office or with SAEON funding and resources.
|
Non-SAEON Affiliated Data
|
Historical data or data that have been produced with no affiliations to SAEON, be
it through registered projects, funding or resources.
|
This document contains three sections:
A. SAEON Data Archiving Policy – SAEON's role in archiving environmental data.
B. SAEON Data Dissemination Policy – A description of what data and metadata should
be released and when it should be released.
C. SAEON Data User Requirements – What a data user must do in order to use SAEON
data.
A. SAEON Data Archiving Policy
SAEON encourages the archiving of environmental data by Data Providers for future
generations. Archiving data within a data infrastructure prevents the loss of environmental
data through damage and prevents the loss of electronically stored data through
software redundancy. All Data Providers must sign the SAEON Data Provider Agreement.
Owners of data wishing to archive data with SAEON must adhere to the following requirements:
• All Datasets must be accompanied by Metadata. Metadata must be filled in using
the SAEON Metadata Form.
• Data Providers have the right to place restrictions on their Datasets. These restrictions
range from no release of the Dataset to any potential Data Users for a specified
period, to limited access to a select group of Data Users, specified by the Data
Provider (see the SAEON Data Provider Agreement), to immediate and full access by
the public.
• Data Providers that place restrictions on their Datasets are required to provide
a release period, after which the SAEON Data Portal Gatekeeper will make the Dataset
publicly available. This release period may be between 6 months to 5 years, unless
otherwise motivated for by the Data Provider. In keeping with the mission and purpose
of SAEON, this embargo period should be kept as short as possible.
• All Data Providers whether they have restrictions on their Datasets or not, must
provide an assessment of the quality (validated, raw, or published) and status (complete
or ongoing) of their Dataset.
SAEON does not exercise any editorial control over the content or quality of any
Dataset archived and therefore gives no warranty as to the correctness and/or fitness
of a Dataset for any purpose.
B. SAEON Data Dissemination Policy
SAEON encourages the public sharing of Data and Metadata while acknowledging the
legal rights and any release conditions by Data Provider. Any potential Data User
must sign the SAEON Data User Agreement or accept the Data User Agreement on the
SAEON Data Portal. .
1. Metadata
Metadata documenting archived Datasets of all data types will be made publicly available
regardless of any restrictions on access to the data. All metadata will follow SAEON
recommended standards and, at a minimum, will contain adequate information on proper
citation, access, contact information, and discovery. Complete information including
methods, structure, semantics, and quality control/assurance is expected for most
datasets and is strongly encouraged.
2. SAEON Affiliated Data
Data collected by SAEON or through SAEON-registered projects should be made available
online free-of-charge, with as few restrictions as possible, on a non-discriminatory
basis. SAEON generated data are classified
into three types, both of which must be archived every 6 months, or as agreed in writing,
at SAEON via the respective node Data Manager.
i. Open: Data will be available freely, openly and without restrictions
ii. Sensitive: Data that will not be released due to copyright agreements, local
or international law and environmentally sensitive content. Some examples of Sensitive
data restrictions may include: locations of rare and endangered species, archaeological
sites, data that are covered under prior licensing or copyright (e.g. SPOT satellite
data), or data where the protection of individual privacy is involved. In the interests
of environmental responsibility SAEON reserves the right to restrict data as Sensitive,
even if the Data Provider does not stipulate it; and,
iii. Embargoed: Data will only be made available to the public by the Data Provider
after a defined period of time. Until the data are made Open, permission to use
these data will be given directly by the Data Provider. SAEON will not archive Embargoed
datasets indefinitely and therefore encourages the Data Providers to place release
periods on such datasets.
3. Non-SAEON Affiliated Data
Non-SAEON affiliated data may have restrictions placed on it as stipulated by the
Data Provider in the SAEON Data Provider Agreement. SAEON is an honest broker of
scientific data and will thus respect the conditions stipulated in the agreement
by the Data Provider, but will also encourage the reasonable release of data to
the public.
Non-SAEON affiliated data will fall into the following categories:
i. Open: Data will be available freely, openly and without restrictions
ii. Sensitive: Data that will not be released due to copyright agreements, local
or international law and environmentally sensitive content. Some examples of Sensitive
data restrictions may include: locations of rare and endangered species, archaeological
sites, data that are covered under prior licensing or copyright (e.g. SPOT satellite
data), or data where the protection of individual privacy is involved. In the interests
of environmental responsibility SAEON reserves the right to restrict data as Sensitive,
even if the Data Provider does not stipulate it; and,
iii. Embargoed: Data will only be made available to the public by the Data Provider
after a defined period of time. Until the data are made Open, permission to use
these data will be given directly by the Data Provider. SAEON will not archive Embargoed
datasets indefinitely and therefore encourages the Data Providers to place release
periods on such datasets.
C. SAEON Data User Requirements
Use of a SAEON-disseminated Dataset requires that the Data User register with
the SAEON Data Portal. This allows SAEON to track data usage and to confirm that
the Data User abides by the Data User Agreement. The following information is required
before a Data User may download a Dataset:
1. Name
2. Affiliation
3. Email address
4. Full contact information, including a postal address
5. Acceptance of the Data Use Agreement
6. A statement about the intended use of the dataset that is compliant with the
above agreements
General Conditions
• SAEON will manage the data on the SAEON Data Portal according to South African law.
• SAEON does not give any warranty in regard to the completeness, correctness or fitness
for any purpose of a Dataset published on the SAEON Data Portal.
• SAEON will therefore not be liable for any damages, whether direct or indirect,
including consequential or incidental damages.
• SAEON will not be liable in the event of loss of data or interruption/delay of access,
howsoever it might occur.