These Data Type Guidelines have been developed using the expertise of the oceanographic data centres of ICES Member Countries. They have been designed to describe the elements of data and metadata important to the ocean research community. These guidelines are targeted toward physical-chemical-biological data types collected on oceanographic research vessel cruises. Each guideline addresses the data and metadata requirements of a specific data type. They cover three main areas:

• What the data collector should provide to the data centre (e.g. collection information, processing, etc)
• How the data centre handles data supplied (e.g. value added, quality control, etc)
• What the data centre can provide in terms of data, referral services and expertise back to the data collector.

The data centres ask that you follow these guidelines when you provide data to them. However they are prepared to receive data sets in any format structure so long as it is well-described and can be read unambiguously. If a specific data centre does not handle data of the type you wish to submit then they will be happy to pass them on to an appropriate data centre. This also applies if you submit your data to ICES (accessions@ices.dk).

If you have any comments on the guidelines, amendments to suggest or wish to propose a new guideline please contact the guideline editor, Garry Dawson.

ICES
H. C. Andersens -
Boulevard 44-46
DK-1553
Copenhagen V
Denmark
Tel: +45 3338 6700
Fax: +45 3393 4215
info@ices.dk