Data Usage Policy

A goal of the SSUSI Data Processing effort is to provide as much information as early as possible. These data may not be "certified". The certification of the data products involves the validation of the calibration factors used to go from engineering units to physical units and the validation of the data product algorithms themselves. Instrument operating parameters also affect the instrument and algorithm performance. Users should contact the SSUSI Principle Investigator (Larry Paxton ) early in an analysis project to discuss the appropriate use of SSUSI data and status of the certification of the SSUSI products to be used. This applies to DMSP and SSUSI mission team members, guest investigators, and other members of the scientific community. SSUSI data products posted on the SSUSI web site are primarily intended to assist in focusing research efforts. Such research efforts may involve detailed analysis of lower level data types and products.

Users planning to publish the results derived from SSUSI data or data products are expected to offer co-authorship to the Project Scientist, or designated team member(s). Co-authorship may be declined by these persons but serves to provide some assurance that the SSUSI data is valid and trusted.

Users should heed the caveats of the SSUSI team as to the interpretation and limitations of SSUSI data, error estimates, and data products. Users should be aware that SSUSI team members may insist that such caveats be published, even if co-authorship is declined. SSUSI data and data products are tagged with version numbers indicating the algorithms, algorithm data tables, and calibration factors used to produce these data and data products. SSUSI data users should clearly state these version numbers when publishing results to avoid any uncertainty about the provenance of the data.

In the interests of a free and open exchange of scientific ideas and providing the best SSUSI data products possible, pre-prints of conference abstracts and publications should be widely distributed to SSUSI team members and other interested parties. This should ensure that the inherent limitations of the SSUSI data and data products used in an analysis project are as well-understood as possible by all parties.