98th ESA Annual Meeting (August 4 -- 9, 2013)

August 03 - 09, 2013

WK 27

Tools for Creating Ecological Metadata: Introduction to Morpho and DataUp

Managing data effectively is an increasingly important skill set. Funding agencies have begun to require data management plans, and journals are requiring that data pertaining to published articles be accessible. Ecologists with good data management skills will be able to maximize the productivity of their own research program. This workshop will give attendees a set of practical tools for easily creating ecological metadata, a critical component of managing data effectively. The DataUp tool (dataup.cdlib.org) is free and open-source, and is available as an add-in for Excel or a web application. It helps researchers to document, organize, preserve, and share their scientific data. Both the add-in and the web application perform four main tasks: (1) perform a best practices check to ensure good data organization, (2) help guide the user through creation of metadata for their Excel file, (3) help the user obtain a unique identifier for their dataset, and (3) connect the user to a DataONE repository, where their data can be deposited and shared with others. Morpho is a free and open-source data management tool that can be generalized for many disciplines but was initially designed for ecologists. It includes a user-friendly interface to create metadata in Ecological Metadata Language (EML). EML is a standard used by the LTER network, NEON, NCEAS and many other major ecological organizations. Morpho can be downloaded (http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/morphoportal.jsp) and used locally to manage data and upload to repositories like the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity and DataONE. Participants are encouraged to bring laptops for practicing their use of DataUp and Morpho.