You can contribute your data to the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology (WDC Paleo), and NOAA will permanently archive it. Contributing your data will allow you to satisfy obligations to publishers and funding agencies, make your data freely and permanently available without restrictions, have your data discovered and used by colleagues and others, and may increase the citation rate of your associated articles.
Data contributions should consist of metadata and one or more data tables including a chronology table, if applicable, as well as raw data and reconstructions. Contribute data and metadata using one of the contribution templates listed below. Note: for security reasons, WDC Paleo has taken down its previous online data contribution forms.
Step 1: Prepare your metadata and data using one of the required data contribution templates, listed below. Depth in the first column and assigned age in the second column is preferred for stratigraphic data. For each column, a row should be placed at the top of the data table containing the attributes of the column as explained in the data contribution templates.
Step 2: Send your data contribution template files as email attachments to paleo@noaa.gov. Please contact us when preparing contributions with more than 10 sites, which can be supplied as matrices containing site and other information, or if you need help for any other reason including contribution of ensemble reconstructions. If you do not receive confirmation of receipt of your contribution, please phone 303-497-6280.
Step 3: You will receive a URL link to your data when they are online. Please review your contribution and contact us with any corrections or additions.
Contributions to the International Tree-Ring Data Bank (ITRDB) should be made in decadal “Tucson” format, and files should be emailed to paleo@noaa.gov. Please also complete the metadata portion of the text or Excel contribution template and include it with your contribution.
Contributions to the International Multiproxy Paleofire Database (IMPD) should be made via the Fire History tree-based (FHX) or charcoal template files below, and completed files should be emailed to paleo@noaa.gov.
For code submissions, please include a “read-me” file that explains the environment needed to run the code, how the code can be run, and any additional requirements to build the code if necessary.
Chronology refers to the ages assigned to a stratigraphic section or other paleoclimatology sample, and chronology tables often consist of these ages combined with measured depths. Please provide chronology tables and the preferred age assignments for all samples in your data contribution.
When providing a chronology table, please provide sufficient information so that the ages can be recalibrated, uncertainty of the age determinations can be assessed, and new age models can be constructed.
Depth should be listed in the first column, and where appropriate, depth ranges should be provided in adjacent columns. Please also provide raw and calibrated ages as well as raw and calibrated uncertainty. To reduce conversion errors, use original units such as “years” or “thousands of years.”
For other age measurements, such as Lead-210 and Uranium series, journal articles provide examples of commonly used table structures and variables to include. Ages determined from multiple sources are often combined in a single table, for example, a table can combine ages such as a core-top age estimate of zero, a stratigraphic correlation tie-point, and radiocarbon ages on subsequent rows in a single table.
