Data

From 2020 on, data are only uploaded to the new database JEXIS.
For the old data before 2020, you can search them in this document. If you need any data before 2020, please contact the data curator.

The Jena Experiment has generated a wealth of data on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning since its initiation in 2002.
The research consortium of the Jena Experiment strongly supports data sharing, while ensuring that the data providers and the Jena Experiment get a fair credit for their work through co-authorship, citation, and/or inclusion in the acknowledgments of resulting papers. To achieve and clearly communicate this goal, a data use and publication policy applies.

Access to metadata and publicly available data

In general, metadata of all datasets can be viewed by the public, and all public data are freely available via the database: jexis.idiv.de.

Procedure to be an external user

Only registered users will get access to the nonpublic datasets. People interested in nonpublic datasets can become external users of the database. Registration as an external user is valid for one year and can be renewed. More details can be found in the workflow to become a user.

Registration

1. To register, follow the URL:
   https://jexis.idiv.de/Account/Register
   and create a new account. In registering, the applicant needs to fill out a request form stating the personal information.
2. accept and sign the Appendix to the Jena Experiment Data sharing and Publication policy.
3. fill in the Project Proposal.
4. send a signed copy of the Appendix and Project Proposal to the data management team via email and state the detailed intention of the usage of the datasets in the database in the email. The project proposal will be shared within the Jena Experiment team to prevent redundancy in research efforts.

Registration as an external user can only be denied in exceptional cases, such as previous data abuse etc.

Data request

After registration, a data request can be sent to the data contact person through the database. The applicant and data creators must come to an agreement for how the data are used for data to be made available. The data use and publication policy of the JE applies. Briefly, an agreement has to be obtained on how the data are used, and how data creators are involved in the analysis and the paper writing.

After decision, the data contact person will reject/accept the data request. As a rule, access should be granted. It can be denied, if the use of the data interferes with planned analyses by the data creators.

General publication rules

The external users need to agree to follow the rules of good scientific practice. This includes that data are not transferred to a third person. Anybody intending to use data must formulate a separate data request, e.g. it is not possible for a scientist to pass the data on to a (Ph.D.-) student or a colleague. Commercial use of data is not allowed, unless written consent of the JE has been obtained.

The external user also agrees to acknowledge the data source in the methods section or the appendix or acknowledgements of any products that involve the dataset in the JE. We recommend a text, that is covering the following content

“The data on “variables” were obtained by “applicant” from the Jena Experiment database (https://jexis.idiv.de/) on “date”. We thank “data creators” for making this data set available. The Jena Experiment is a research unit funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (FOR 456/1451/5000).”

Finally, the JE should be informed about the outcome of the analysis, and we strongly encourage uploading any derived variables from the JE data to the JE database.