You can download the data sharing policy (version 1) here.
We recognize that the data you have collected represent a significant investment of time, resources, and expertise. We are committed to a data sharing relationship built on mutual respect, transparency, and a shared goal of advancing the science and practice of ecological restoration. This document outlines our approach to data sharing to ensure your contributions are acknowledged and your data is used responsibly and according to your wishes.
Please let us know if you would like us to review and agree to some other data sharing policy/agreement, and we will be happy to discuss that with you.
1. The Data We Are Requesting
We are seeking monitoring data related to tropical restoration projects. The datasets should, in total, cover a minimum of 5 years from the time of intervention, and with data collected at least in 2 different years (ideally every year or every other year). This data may include, but are not limited to:
Monitoring Data:
- Ecological Indicators: Data on vegetation (e.g., species composition, cover, survival, natural regeneration, etc.), soils, water quantity and quality, biodiversity of groups besides plants (e.g., birds, insects, etc), wildlife use of restored plots, etc.
- Social indicators: Data on health and education outcomes, involvement of local people in restoration/monitoring activities, etc.
- Economic indicators: Data on employment in restoration/monitoring activities, labor income, economic valuation of ecosystem services/ecosystem functioning, etc.
- Reference data or control sites for comparison.
- Implementation Data: Information on the timing and methods of restoration activities.
- Associated Data: Site photographs, maps, and any available reports or summaries.
- We will work with you to identify the specific data from your records that are most relevant to our research questions and are reasonably accessible for you to share. We are not necessarily looking for datasets with all of these data, but any dataset with any of these variables is potentially of interest to us.
Project Information (Metadata): Location(s) of restoration project(s), size of restoration area, intervention start year, restoration goals, land use history, topography, and cost of monitoring.
2. How We Will Use Your Data
Your data will be used for the following research purposes only:
- To determine whether short-term monitoring could help predict long-term outcomes of tropical restoration, and to determine which indicators could this be potentially true for.
- To determine the progress of different indicators at different points of the restoration timeline.
- To determine whether the rate of change of these indicators changes over time.
We will discuss with you if we wish to use the data for any other purpose, and for how long we can use this data.
Your data will be integrated with data from other restoration projects in the tropics to identify broader patterns and get insights that may not be apparent from a single project.
We aim to publish the following outputs from this work:
- Scientific paper(s) presenting the results of the analysis.
- Summaries for practitioners, donors, and policymakers with key take home messages.
- An online tool to help restoration practitioners plan their monitoring efforts in the tropics.
- Databases being published online (subject to the policy in “Data Confidentiality and Anonymity” and “Data Ownership and Intellectual Property” sections below).
3. Data Confidentiality and Anonymity We understand that some of your data may be sensitive. We are committed to protecting your privacy and the specific locations of your projects if requested.
Data Anonymization: We will anonymize your data by removing or generalizing any personally identifiable information (about any person/group/project) or specific location data. Any data shared with scientific publications would be processed data without personally identifiable information.
Data Protection: Unique identifiers will be used for analysis, and the key linking these identifiers to specific projects will be kept confidential and secure. We are happy to discuss any data protection policies you want us to follow regarding data related to endangered species or specific species of concern.
Secure Storage: All data will be stored on secure, password-protected servers accessible only to the research team until the products (database, scientific paper(s), policy papers, online tools) are published (unless permission is taken separately to store for longer). All data will be stored for a maximum of up to 2 years after the project ends. Raw data will be accessible only by the working group team leaders.
4. Data Ownership and Intellectual Property
You Retain Ownership: You will retain full ownership of your original data. We will use the data for the above mentioned purposes, but do not claim ownership of the data.
Shared Intellectual Property: Any publications, presentations, or reports that result from the analysis of the compiled dataset will be the intellectual property of the research project. However, we are committed to acknowledging your contribution and provide ways for you to participate more fully in our project and its products.
5. Acknowledgment and Co-authorship
We believe in giving credit where credit is due. Your contribution to this research will be acknowledged in all resulting publications, presentations, reports, and online tools/databases.
Acknowledgment: We will acknowledge you and your organization as contributors of data, photos, maps, and figures in a dedicated section of any output. Please let us know your preferred format for acknowledgment.
Co-authorship: When you share your data and make intellectual contributions to the analysis and writing of a specific publication or project output, we will offer co-authorship in accordance with standard academic practices. We will discuss this possibility with you as the research progresses. Our detailed co-authorship policy is available here: Co-Authorship Policy
6. Sharing Our Findings
We are committed to sharing the results of our research with you and the broader restoration community.
Summary of Findings: We will provide you with a summary of the key findings from our research. All co-authors of each product will get opportunities to contribute effectively before the product is published (see co-authorship policy for more details). Any data contributors who choose to not be co-authors will be given a 2-week period to comment on products before submitting for publishing.
Copies of Publications and Products: We will share with you digital copies of any publications/products that result from this research.
Open Access: Whenever possible, we will publish our findings in open-access journals to ensure the widest possible dissemination to practitioners and the public.
7. Our Agreement
By sharing your data with our project, you are agreeing to the terms outlined in this document. We see this as a collaborative partnership and are open to discussing any specific concerns or requests you may have.
We are excited about the potential of this research to contribute to more effective and successful restoration outcomes. Thank you for considering sharing your valuable data with us and for helping us improve how restoration projects are being monitored.