Can I Contribute?

How to determine if BCO-DMO (www.bco-dmo.org) is the right repository for your data.

Data types served by BCO-DMO

BCO-DMO is a domain-specific repository, focusing on biological and chemical oceanographic data resulting from research conducted in coastal, marine, great lakes, and laboratory environments.

We work closely with research communities to apply quality controls, create and curate robust discovery- and use-level metadata, and document provenance, thereby increasing data reusability.

NSF Programs supported by BCO-DMO

BCO-DMO is funded by the US National Science Foundation to provide data management services at no additional cost to projects funded by:

• The NSF Oceanography Divisions:

  • Biological Oceanography Program

  • Chemical Oceanography Program

• The NSF Division of Polar Programs' Antarctic Organisms & Ecosystems Program (OPP; formerly PLR)

• NSF Ocean Acidification program (CRI-OA). Certain awards represent collaborations between OCE and other NSF divisions, eg., Division of Environmental Biology (DEB). NOTE: this is a legacy program that has sunset.

• NSF FSML: Biological Field Stations and Marine Laboratories (part of Division of Biological Infrastructure, DBI).

• Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER): LTER is a cross-cutting program at the Directorate/Division level (for example BIO/DEB, GEO/OPP, GEO/OCE, SBE/BCS) that funds research at oceanographic sites (GEO/OCE). BCO-DMO accepts ancillary or complimentary research output conducted at these sites. Core LTER research data can be directed to the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI) repository.

BCO-DMO staff members work with researchers funded by these NSF programs to ensure that their research output is in compliance with the current NSF OCE Sample and Data Policy (NSF 17-037).

Do you have other data?

If your project is not funded by an NSF program that BCO-DMO serves, there are additional repositories in the compiled list of recommended data centers below.

If your data fit within BCO-DMO's disciplinary scope, it may be possible to obtain data management services for non-OCE projects. These are typically prioritized after NSF OCE data and are on a fee-for-service basis. Costs are decided after review of the data. Please contact info@bco-dmo.org for more information.

Other recommended domain-specific repositories

Not all NSF-funded projects are supported by BCO-DMO. Additional recommended data centers include:

• For NSF OCE-sponsored physical oceanography projects, investigators are encouraged to contact the CLIVAR and Carbon Hydrographic Data Office (CCHDO) or archive their data directly with the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

• For marine geology, contact the Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance (IEDA) group hosted at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University.

• For projects supported by NSF Arctic Sciences Program (ARC) investigators, the Arctic Data Center which succeeds the Advanced Cooperative Arctic Data and Information Service (ACADIS), should be contacted. The Arctic Data Center is supported by NSF and is led by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California Santa Barbara, to develop and curate the NSF Arctic Data Center, an archive for Arctic scientific data as well as other related research documents.

• Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) funded projects can submit data to their regional GoMRI location. See https://data.gulfresearchinitiative.org/about for additional information including their data management plan under the "Design and Management" menu option.

• Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) research community: Guidance to OCB scientists who are uncertain where to submit or propose to submit their data is available from the OCB website.