POLICIES AND TERMS OF USE

2023-07-21

The Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS) repository is maintained by the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) of the UNESCO-IOC as an Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IODE, GOOS) coordinated activity.

Feedback from our users is welcomed: if you come across a possible error or incomplete information or want to contribute to OBPS repository, please email info@oceanbestpractices.org

Citation

When consulting and using information from the OBPS repository, the general citation for OBPS is as follows:

Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). Oostende, Belgium, International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) of UNESCO-IOC Available: https://www.oceanbestpractices.org/ (Accessed ...)

When citing records from the OBPS repository in reports, poster, publications ..., please use the citation for the document as provided in the record metadata. Please forward the citation of any publication/report that made use of OBPS and its available records to info@oceanbestpractices.org for inclusion in our list of references.

By consulting, depositing and/or downloading data from the OBPS repository, the user agrees to the following:

Disclaimer

Unless it has been accepted and annotated in OBPS as an Endorsed Practice by an Expert Panel, inclusion of a methodology in the OBPS, does not indicate that the methodology is recommended by OBPS.

The information, data, statements, geographical boundaries, maps and declarations expressed in documents and objects in the OBPS repository do not imply the official endorsement or acceptance by UNESCO/IOC-IODE.

UNESCO/IOC-IODE does not warrant that the information, documents and materials contained in the OBPS repository and OBPS website is complete and correct and shall not be liable whatsoever for any damages incurred as a result of its use. Contributors to this repository are solely responsible for the contents of their uploaded documents.

Mention of a commercial company or product within this repository content does not constitute an endorsement by UNESCO/IOC-IODE. Use of information from this repository for publicity or advertising purposes concerning proprietary products or the tests of such products is not authorized.

POLICIES

Privacy Policy

Privacy and personal data

We take your privacy very seriously. In order to provide access to this site, we need to collect and store personal information about you. We respect your privacy and your email address will not be shared or sold to any third party.

What is collected?

We collect the data that you provide when creating an account, such as name and email.

How is this information used?

This information is only used to provide access to the online repository and for statistical purposes which will not specifically identify you.

How long is my data stored?

Your personal data is stored as long as your account is active on this site.

Metadata

Third parties may collect metadata from the OBPS Repository via automated mechanisms and facilitate end-user services to support the dissemination and retrieval of the repository’s content. It is the policy of the OBPS to allow the harvesting of metadata, but to explicitly prohibit the automated harvesting of the full content of the intellectual works in the OBPS repository.

Access to Full Text

The purpose of OBPS repository is to make full-text best practice (methodologies) documents and other objects discoverable, accessible, searchable and usable by any potential user with access to the Internet. Thus, the OBPS applies the FAIR Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-Usable) in its design.

Searching and downloading full text documents in the OBPS repository is free for any individual user. Re-use of OBPS content is controlled by the display of Rights Permissions (eg Creative Commons License) including any other copyright restrictions.

Single copies of full text items may be reproduced for educational, scientific or research purposes or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge provided the following are displayed:

  • The correct citation to authors, title and full bibliographic details
  • The DOI and /or URL for the original metadata page
  • The original copyright statement
  • The original Rights permission statement

The downloaded content must not be changed in any way unless allowed by the Permission to Use license attached to the metadata.

Deposits

Depositors

  • Items may only be deposited by registered members of the OBPS repository.
  • The validity and authenticity of the full text content of submissions is the sole responsibility of the author/s.
  • Authors or their agents will be responsible for ensuring the documents they archive do not have any restrictions on their electronic distribution. If the submission task is delegated to other persons (e.g. the librarian), then the institute must ensure they have the requisite authority.
  • Duplication of documents in different open access repositories is permitted.

Content scope

  • Deposits are accepted on the understanding that the content is put forth as a methodological document by the deposit provider.
  • OBPS repository is focused on ocean-related sciences. The OBPS repository Editorial Team has the right to
    • Reject any deposit not deemed to be within the subject scope of the repository.
    • Reject deposits containing metadata only without a full text deposit upload.

The original Rights permission statement

  • Book/Monograph: a book or a conference volume or complete serial issue
  • Book Section: a chapter or section in a book, monograph or conference volume
  • Journal Contribution : A contribution to a journal
  • Report: this may be a technical report, project report, documentation, working paper, discussion paper
  • Report Section: a chapter or section in a report
  • Software: computer programs and applications
  • Video: a recording of moving visual images made digitally
  • Web-based Content. If a document is hosted on a website, download the document and use the appropriate document type for the item and include the website URL in the Resource URI metadata field.
  • Other: something within the scope of the repository but not covered by the other categories

If ‘Other’ document types become numerous the OBPS repository Editorial Team will discuss with submitters to assess the feasibility of additional document types.

Deposit File Formats

The OBPS repository will support and preserve the following formats using either format migration or emulation techniques:

  • supported (we fully support the format)
    • Adobe PDF/a (.pdf)
    • plain text (e.g. .txt)
  • known (we can recognize the format, but cannot guarantee full support)
    • Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)
    • Microsoft Powerpoint (.ppt, .pptx)
    • Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xlsx)
    • Open/Libre Office(.odt, .opp, .ods)

Files uploaded in compressed format (zip, rar, 7z, …) are not accepted because long-term support cannot be explicitly guaranteed.

Deposit of other esoteric file formats should be discussed with the OBPS Repository Manager.

Copyright

  • Only items complying with copyright conditions or permission to use license should be deposited.
  • Any copyright violations are entirely the responsibility of the authors.
  • If the OBPS repository receives proof of copyright violation, the relevant item will be removed immediately.
  • Acceptable reasons for withdrawal include:
    • Journal publishers' rules
    • Proven copyright violation or plagiarism
    • Legal requirements and proven violations
    • National security
    • Falsified research
  • Withdrawn items are deleted entirely from the database and metadata will not be searchable.
  • If necessary, an updated acceptable version may be deposited.
  • In the unlikely event of OBPS repository being closed-down, the database will be transferred to another appropriate archive.

Preservation

The OBPS repository policy for preservation of documents is:

  • All materials posted in the OBPS repository will be retrievable but it is strongly recommended authors use PDF/a. [PDF/a is an ISO-standardized version of the Portable Document Format specialized for use in the archiving and long-term preservation of electronic documents. PDF/a differs from PDF by prohibiting features unsuitable for long-term archiving, such as font linking and encryption.]
  • OBPS repository will try to ensure continued accessibility.
  • Supported means that OBPS repository will make the file usable in the future, applying whatever combination of techniques (such as migration, emulation, etc.) as is appropriate, given the context of need. Not all proprietary formats can be supported. These files will still be preserved. It is likely that for extremely popular but proprietary formats (such as Microsoft .docx, .xls and .ppt), OBPS repository will be able to help make files in those formats viewable in the future. Items will be retained indefinitely.
  • OBPS repository regularly backs up its files according to current best practice.
  • Items may be removed at the request of the author/copyright holder, but this is strongly discouraged.