Data Submission

Instructions and Files for Submitting Data

Researchers should contact the PIE LTER Information Manager (pie_im at mbl.edu) to check on the most current process for data submission and entry of metadata and data.

Original Data Sets
Original first version data files should be submitted using the Excel Metadata spreadsheet template and the resulting file should be submitted to the PIE LTER Information Manager. The template contains explicit instructions often cell by cell which is helpful for filling out the form.
Download the PIE LTER Excel Metadata spreadsheet template here: PIE LTER Excel Metadata Template. Save edited Excel Metadata file as Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls).
See File Name and Site Name Protocol for instructions on how to name data files and research site names. PIE reserves the right to edit metadata content for data compatibility with PIE and the LTER Network.

Update Data Sets
Data file updates should be done by downloading the most recent version of the Excel data set from the Data area of the PIE web site. The Excel file metadata and data should be updated and the researcher should contact the PIE LTER Information Manager to indicate an updated data set will be submitted.

Spatial GIS Data
PIE recommends using ESRI ArcGIS for spatial data. Contact the PIE Information Manager to discuss protocols for GIS data submission. Data is submitted to the PIE Information Manager as a zipped directory of ArcGIS data (raster or vector) and metadata. Metadata should be entered via ArcCatalog, see the following PIE GIS Metadata instructions ESRI v1.3.pdf for instructions. After the ArcGIS zip directory has been submitted, a dataset will be created for the PIE Drupal DEIMS web site and an EML metadata file will be generated. The EML file is then uploaded to the LTER Data Portal for standardized search, discovery and download of archived datesets.

In the past spatial data was submitted in a variety of ways depending upon the source software for the GIS information. If ESRI ArcGIS is not an option contact the PIE IM.
For ESRI data a LTER ESRI2EML script was used to convert metadata from ESRI (or FGDC) to EML. The LTER Information Management web site, Esri2EML, has the latest documentation. Versions of the script often change depending upon ESRI software changes and also the LTER Network PASTA Data Portal requirements. Contact the PIE LTER Information Manager to discuss script version options.
Previous versions of IDRISI and some ArcGIS GIS metadata followed FGDC and researchers generated metadata by hand using a Microsoft Word template developed by Clark.  PIE has developed an R script (June 2013) for conversion of the MS Word metadata to EML 2.1.0.
Download ArcGIS based MS Word FGDC metadata template
Download IDRISI based MS Word FGDC metadata template