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Research data support at the Bolin Centre

Curation

  1. Curation interface
  2. Data contribution form
  3. Curation status
  4. Check list for approve
  5. Style rules
    1. Text formatting
    2. Punctuation and special characters
    3. Compass directions
    4. Markdown
    5. Coordinates
    6. Free
  6. Collections
    1. General rules
    2. Oden data repository
      1. Artofmelt 2023
      2. Arctic Ocean 2018
    3. Tarfala data
  7. Special cases
    1. Miocene temperature portal
  8. Email templates
    1. First response
    2. In curation
    3. Approved
    4. Association
    5. Published
  9. Git code repository

Curation interface

Basic instructions:

  • Web address: https://bolin.su.se/data/contribute
  • Sign in with your curator credentials
  • Dataset list: When you have signed in, a list with all datasets is loaded.
  • Show all: At start, the list only shows datasets where curation work is ongoing. Click 'Show all' to see all datasets if desired.
  • Filter: The dataset list can be filtered using the status button and text fields at the top.
  • Curation: Click on (or open in new tab) the desired dataset to reach the Data contribution form.
    • A presentation of the latest revision is shown, with a revision list at the bottom.
    • To make a new revision, click 'Update'.
    • Make changes in the form.
    • Click 'preview' to see all metadata interactively updated when you type in the form.
    • Describe your edits briefly under Updates.
    • Set an appropriate Curation status.
    • Click 'Submit' to submit a revision.
  • Data upload:
    • The status must be higher than 'New' before a scientist has permission to upload any data file.
    • A curator can give a scientist permission to upload a larger data file than the default. This is done under 'Data size limit'. The permission works for 24 hours, and only from one unique revision id.
  • Approve: Before a scientist can publish the data, it must first be approved by a curator. Choose a desired dataset. Then click 'Approve'.
  • Publish: The scientist can, at any desired timepoint, publish a dataset that has first been approved. A curator can also publish. Choose a desired dataset. Then click 'Publish'.

Data contribution form

Instructions for scientists and curators are provided for each item in the online Data contribution form. Curation details are provided at three levels:

  1. Very short information (shown by default)
  2. Some more details (click More info in the form)
  3. Even more details (click the second More info)

The information provided in the Data contribution form is derived from the document Form.

Curation status

A revision of metadata for a dataset will have one of the following 10 status values:

  1. Irrelevant
  2. Test
  3. Deprecated
  4. Inactive
  5. New
  6. Before curation
  7. In curation
  8. Near final
  9. Ready
  10. Approved

Every new data set draft submitted by a researcher will automatically be given the status New.

Once a curator has looked at the dataset, but not done any curation, the curator can set the status to Before curation, and then in later revisions to either In curation, Near final or Ready, depending on where one judges that you are in the process.

A dataset must have status Before curation or higher if a scientist shall be able to upload data files.

Ready should only be used when the dataset is ready for being published, but for some reason the publication shall be made later.

Approved should be set when the researcher has approved that the data set can be published. It is possible to lower the status level when necessary.

The other status values have the following meanings:

  • Irrelevant spam and other things that have nothing to do with our database
  • Test case where the curator wants to test something
  • Deprecated the curator judges that no new revisions will ever be made
  • Inactive the researcher has stopped actively working on new revisions, but the curator judges that activity might be resumed later.

Check list for approve

  1. Dataset name - is it as agreed?, unique? and consistent with its data collection when relevant?
  2. Title - is it understandable? is it coherent with other similar or related datasets?
  3. Data creator - should include all persons that shall be mentioned when the dataset is cited
  4. Summary - does it have three paragraphs following the instructions?
  5. Summary - should not contain references to articles, and avoid unexplained technical terms
  6. Data description - clear and understandable?
  7. Comments - clear and understandable if existing?
  8. References - consistently formatted? Preferably as springer-basic-author-date-no-et-al
  9. Keywords - adequate, correctly spelt and formatted?
  10. Category and Sub-category - appropriately chosen?
  11. Contact information - correct in all details?
  12. GCMD keywords and location - correctly chosen?
  13. Dataset language - English in most cases
  14. Project - Is relevant information provided?
  15. Dataset version - must be provided
  16. Version history - include if version is greater than 1
  17. Publisher - Bolin Centre Database (or other when data is published elsewhere)
  18. Begin date/End date - provide whenever relevant
  19. License - should normally be provided
  20. Citation - provide complete citation string, only if dataset is published elsewhere
  21. Data files - Are they OK?
  22. Coordinates - include when relevant
  23. Check style rules, e.g. replace all range hyphens with en dash
  24. Check all links
  25. (Add banner and path for datasets in a collection)
  26. Approve - when everything is ok
  27. Inform data creator when dataset is approved
  28. Data creator can now publish, after having signed agreement
  29. Check afterwards that a doi has been created by clicking on the link.

Style rules

Text formatting in general

  • Avoid long text paragraphs in Data description and Comments because they are difficult to read (by humans). Break down in shorter paragraphs. Headings (written in Markdown) can also help to improve readability.

  • Spell out full names of other datasets in the Bolin Centre Database and assign hyperlinks to the full titles, instead of writing that some data can be found 'here'. It is also possible to provide the full reference to another dataset in the section References and refer to it by writing, e.g., dataset by Moberg et al. (2024) in the text.

  • Use italics instead of quotation marks (except for quotes)

  • Use superscript characters instead of ^^ whenever possible.

Punctuation and special characters

  • Punctuation with units Non-breaking space between the number and the unit
    20 Hz, 432 km, 76 ‰, **−**3 °C, 78° 36” 54’ N.

SI Unit rules and style conventions

  • Dashes

    • Minus sign
      −65
    • En-dash surrounded by hair spaces
      The 2010 – 2011 season was our best yet.
      564 – 765 pp.
    • Em-dash surrounded by spaces
      Most newspapers — and all that follow AP style — insert a space before and after the em dash.

  • Apostrophes

    • Apostrof finns i två varianter:
      ' skrivmaskinsapostrof
      ’ typografisk apostrof
      I vårdad stil eller tryckt text rekommenderas den typografiska varianten. \

  • Superscripts and Subscripts
    Unicode_subscripts_and_superscripts

    CO₂, δ¹³C and Hgᴵᴵ.

    Digits ⁰ ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ₀ ₁ ₂ ₃ ₄ ₅ ₆ ₇ ₈ ₉

    Signs ⁺ ⁻ ⁼ ⁽ ⁾ ₊ ₋ ₌ ₍ ₎

    Superscript minuscule ᵃ ᵇ ᶜ ᵈ ᵉ ᶠ ᵍ ʰ ⁱ ʲ ᵏ ˡ ᵐ ⁿ ᵒ ᵖ ʳ ˢ ᵗ ᵘ ᵛ ʷ ˣ ʸ ᶻ

    Subscript minuscule ₐ ₑ ₕ ᵢ ⱼ ₖ ₗ ₘ ₙ ₒ ₚ ᵣ ₛ ₜ ᵤ ᵥ ₓ

    Superscript capital ᴬ ᴮ ᴰ ᴱ ᴳ ᴴ ᴵ ᴶ ᴷ ᴸ ᴹ ᴺ ᴼ ᴾ ᴿ ᵀ ᵁ ⱽ ᵂ

  • Greek alphabet:
    Α α, Β β, Γ γ, Δ δ, Ε ε, Ζ ζ, Η η, Θ θ, Ι ι, Κ κ, Λ λ, Μ μ, Ν ν, Ξ ξ, Ο ο, Π π, Ρ ρ, Σ σ/ς, Τ τ, Υ υ, Φ φ, Χ χ, Ψ ψ, Ω ω.

  • Units with multiple denominators
    • μmol / (m² d)
    • μmol m⁻² d⁻¹

Uppercase or lowercase compass directions?

See

https://www.scu.edu/apps/styleguide/search/251

https://sites.google.com/a/ngs.org/ngs-style-manual/home/N/north-northern

Markdown

https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/

https://www.markdownguide.org/extended-syntax/

Coordinates

To be written

https://www.apsalin.com/dms-to-decimal/ to convert (Latitude, Longitude) into decimal format

Free

Free content can be written in html, e.g. for data visualizations. It may need javascript, included in JavaScript code.

The Free content field can be moved in the presentation of the metadata. This is done by changing highlight-position.

Collections

General rules

To be written

Oden data

Title

Format with suffix e.g.

  • ... during the Arctic Ocean 2018 expedition
  • ... from the Arctic Ocean 2018 expedition
Keywords

Add common keywords

  1. (either) Arctic Ocean
  2. (or) Southern Ocean
  3. (always) Icebreaker Oden
  4. (e.g.) Arctic Ocean 2018 expedition
Comments

Data were collected during the xxxx expedition with the Swedish icebreaker Oden, which was organised by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat.

Note: The web address to an appropriate expedition should of course be used in the link in the example sentence above.

The ship's name

Use Icebreaker Oden instead of I/B Oden, or simply the icebreaker Oden when relevant.

New or updated version of a collection

To create a new version of an expedition collection or a first version if no version exists:

  1. Add dataset to list of datasets in expedition collection
  2. Update the following fields if needed
    1. Creators
    2. References
    3. Version history in Comments
  3. Add or update alias (make sure to remove old before adding new)
  4. Create a new version of the Oden data repository collection
  5. Update number of datasets in each topic
  6. Update number of datasets in each expedition
  7. Update the following fields if needed
    1. Summary
    2. Keywords
    3. References
    4. Version history in Comments
    5. Update summary in expedition collection if needed
    6. Add or update alias (make sure to remove old before adding new)
  8. Add banner to dataset and expedition collection (does not exist yet)
  9. Add breadcrumbs to dataset
  10. Add breadcrumbs to expedition collection
ARTofMELT 2023
Name

[oden-artofmelt-2023-label]

Title

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet … expedition ARTofMELT, Arctic Ocean, 2023

Keywords

Arctic; Arctic Ocean; ARTofMELT; ARTofMELT 2023 expedition; Icebreaker Oden

Comments

Data were collected during the ARTofMELT 2023 expedition on board the Swedish icebreaker Oden, which was organized by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat from 8 May through 14 June, 2023.

Project

ARTofMELT 2023 expedition. (followed by some specific info about funding, grant no, PI, etc.)

Coordinates

Use same coordinates as in https://bolin.su.se/data/oden-artofmelt-2023-radiosonde-1 if not entirely irrelevant.

Arctic Ocean 2018
Title

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet … the Arctic Ocean 2018 expedition

Keywords

Arctic Ocean; AO2018; Icebreaker Oden

Comments

Data were collected during the Arctic Ocean 2018 expedition on board the Swedish icebreaker (I/B) Oden, which was organized by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat.

Project

Arctic Ocean 2018. (followed by some specific info about funding, grant no, PI, etc.) Coordinates

Coordinates

Use same coordinates as in https://bolin.su.se/data/ao2018-navigation if not entirely irrelevant.

Tarfala data

Common style rules
Title

… Kebnekaise mountains, northern Sweden

Keywords

Tarfala;

Is it monitoring or research data?

Monitoring data = data resulting from regular (long-term) work at TRS and that are not directly related to one particular researcher or a small research group.

Research data = data created by one particular researcher or a small research group (who may have particular dedicated funding for the actual work).

Examples
Monitoring data: https://bolin.su.se/data/tarfala-sydtoppen-elevation-5
Research data: https://bolin.su.se/data/tarfala-kirchner-2020-lake-temperature-1

2. Should names of persons be included in the list of Data creators?
  • Monitoring data
    • Data creator should normally be
      • Tarfala Research Station staff
  • Research data
    • Data creator should normally name all involved individual scientists

Examples:

Also, dataset name structure is different for monitoring data and research data.

Dataset name structure
  • Monitoring data
    • tarfala-[dataspecification]
  • Research data
    • tarfala-[creatorslastname-publicationyear]-[dataspecification]
    • or, if not strongly related to Tarfala Research Station
    • [creatorslastname]-[publicationyear]-[dataspecification]
3. Is the dataset expected to be updated regularly, with data for a longer time period?

If the answer is yes, then no time period should be included as a part of the title.

Examples:

Answer is no:

The Sydtoppen elevation dataset does not have any time period included in its Title. It can thus be updated with a new version every year, when there is new data for another year.

The lake temperature dataset has a specific time period in its Title. In this case, it will be necessary to publish an entirely new dataset when newer (or older) data shall be published.

Special datasets

Miocene temperature portal

https://bolin.su.se/data/miocene-temperature-portal

New contributions to the dataset can be made by anyone, by clicking the Submit new entry button on the Miocene temperature portal.

New contributions are automatically added to a data table with all submitted contributions, but only on a separate admin site. No new contributions shall be published before they have been vetted and approved.

To publish new versions, two separate components need to be considered:

  1. Admin site
  2. Metadata
Admin site

https://bolin.su.se/data/miocene-temperature-portal/contribute/admin#

  1. The scientific content of new data contributions from the community should be vetted and approved by the responsible scientists. They can login at the admin site and do their desired edits there.
  2. The Bolin data curator is responsible for the technical format of the data.
  3. The Bolin data curator should download the approved data entries as a miocene-temperature-portal.csv file and check if there are any technical errors.
  4. Errors should be corrected, by editing and submitting updated revisions through the table on the admin site wherever needed. Particular attention should be paid to the following:
  • ageStart should be larger than ageStop.
  • resolution should be either a number or a text string formatted in a similar way as in already public data contributions in earlier versions.
  • referencesFull should be formatted exactly as in earlier versions:
  • The use of commas, semicolons, periods and spaces must be checked.
  • The doi for an article should be given in the form https://doi.org/10.xxxx
  • referencesShort should be in the same style as in earlier versions.
  • urlData should preferably be a doi. Check that the doi is correct.
  • repository check that the repository name is correct. It should be spelt exactly, and have the same usage of capital and small letters, as in earlier versions.

When a thoroughly vetted miocene-temperature-portal.csv file exists, it should be uploaded to a new draft of the metadata.

Metadata

To prepare a draft metadata for a new version, do the following:

  1. Open an existing draft for the previous version.
  2. Update the record by:
  • Change the version number.
  • Add appropriate update information in the Version history (under Comments).
  • Upload the vetted miocene-temperature-portal.csv file (obtained from the admin site).
  1. Additional hand-on work is needed by the technical manager:
  • Change highlight_position, so that the Free content appears below the dataset Citation.
  • Move the uploaded miocene-temperature-portal-*.csv file from https://bolin.su.se/data/contributions/data/ to https://bolin.su.se/data/data/. (where * stands for a version number).
  • Edit the javascript (change * to the appropriate version number) so that the correct miocene-temperature-portal-*.csv file is used in the interactive graphics:
  • $.get('data/miocene-temperature-portal-*.csv', function( d ) {
  1. Ask the responsible scientists to check the metadata and interactive graphics.
  2. If they want to make any changes, it is most safe if they inform the curator by email and the curator then updates the draft.

When the responsible scientist has approved, do the following:

  1. Publish
  2. Include alias miocene-temperature-portal in the latest public version.

Email templates

First response

We are happy to publish your dataset and will be available for questions regarding the publishing process.

We have now curated your dataset as described below. The latest revision is found at the following address.

https://bolin.su.se/data/contributions/?d=9346&p=MjAyMy0xMS0yNCAxNjozMDozNS4xNTQ3NjkgMzM2MDM1MTM

  1. Internal name

I changed the internal name of your dataset to **NAME **which will be included in the web address and the doi.

Do you have a more significant suggestion of the label?

The year in the name and doi will also change if the data-set is not published until the end of the year so please let us know if you would like to publish it this year or next year?

  1. Title

Changed the title from:

to:

Could you specify the where a little bit in the title, it will make it easier to be found.

  1. Summary

I restructured your summary a bit to follow the standard for our datasets of three paragraphs answering:

  1. What

  2. Why

  3. Where, when and how

3.1. What

3.2. Why

3.3. Where, when and how

  1. References

I added the name of the manuscript you mentioned in the References and once it will be published we can update this field with the correct reference and a doi.

  1. Data

If the total data size is smaller than 10 GB, you can upload it directly in the Data Entry Form if you are connected to the wired Stockholm University computer network. If your data is contained in more than one file, please upload a zip file containing all data. If not, please provide us a link to your data. We also offer other data transfer possibilities if needed.

https://bolin.su.se/data/support/docs#upload-data-files

For speadsheet data we recommend you to provide csv ascii files (comma, semicolon or tab delimited files) only with a header and data values. We also welcome xlsx speadsheet files with no formatting, graphs or images. If you have multiple sheets (tabs) we recommend to have only one table per sheet. For the table header we recommend simple words or terms using alphanumeric (a-z and 0-9) lower case characters and hyphen and underscore.

  1. Minor corrections

Minor corrections to Publisher, Dataset version, Curation status

You can find more information about how to contribute at the following addresses, with details given in the last link below.

https://bolin.su.se/data/support/

https://bolin.su.se/data/support/publish

https://bolin.su.se/data/support/docs

If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at bolindata@su.se.

Best,

Bolin Centre Database

In curation

We are happy to publish your dataset and will be available for questions regarding the publishing process.

We have now curated your dataset as described below. The latest revision at the following address.

Link

List of revisions

You can find more information about how to contribute at the following addresses, with details given in the last link below.

https://bolin.su.se/data/support/

https://bolin.su.se/data/support/publish

https://bolin.su.se/data/support/docs

If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at bolindata@su.se.

Best,

Bolin Centre Database

Approved

Your dataset is now approved for publication. Please confirm that you, on behalf of all data creators, agree that the dataset revision at the address below, can be published now. Then we will publish.

You can find more information about how to contribute at the following addresses, with details given in the last link below.

https://bolin.su.se/data/support/

https://bolin.su.se/data/support/publish

https://bolin.su.se/data/support/docs

If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at bolindata@su.se.

Best,

Bolin Centre Database

Ask for association with Bolin Centre Database

Your Dataset looks very interesting and also relevant for our database, however we have limited resources and therefore have to restrict publications of datasets to those with a connection to the Stockholm University or the Bolin Centre. Do you or any of your co-authors have any association to either of these institutes? If there is a connection we would gladly help you to publish your dataset, otherwise we unfortunately have to decline.

Best,

Bolin Centre Database

Published

Your dataset is now published at the address below. Please let us know when your paper is published and send us its doi.

https://bolin.su.se/data/author-year-label-version

The Center for Topographic Studies of the Ocean and Hydrosphere (CTOH) (2023) Altimetry data from multiple satellite sensors over Sweden for lake and river water level estimation. Dataset version 1. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/author-year-label-version

Git code repository

To make code public with doi

  1. Check repository content and ensure that the following items exist:
    1. License
    2. Readme file in markdown, based on our template
    3. Project description in markdown with links to paper and data (settings>general)
  2. Transfer to group Bolin Centre for Climate Research (settings>general, then advanced>transfer project>select a new namespace>Bolin Centre for Climate Research)
  3. Set project name (preferrable same as project path, e.g. lindgren-2025-carbon-model) (settings>general), no capital letters and no blanks
  4. Set project path (preferrable same as project name, e.g. lindgren-2025-carbon-model) (settings>general, then advanced>change path)
  5. Check that README.md is correct, including project URL, DOI address (see rule below) and publication date. The following items must be correct for the DOI to be correct:
    1. Title written as heading level 1
    2. Authors forename lastname, separate persons with comma and blank
    3. Version version number (e.g. 1.0.0)
  6. Create tag and release (to freeze project in time, e.g. 1.0.0. Tag name = 1.0.0. Both Message and Release notes = Initial release) (under code in the menu)
  7. Make project public (settings>general in the menu, then visibility, project features, permissions>Public and Save changes)
  8. A DOI will be generated automatically, when the tag has been created and the project visibility is public.
  9. Downgrade user permissions (manage>members) to reporter (can later be upgraded to e.g. developer)
  10. Check that the DOI address works

Rule for how the DOI address is generated and how it should be written in the Readme file:

  1. The DOI prefix for the Bolin Centre Code Repository is 10.57669
  2. The DOI suffix will consist of the project name followed by the version string
  3. The DOI will lead to a landing page that corresponds to the tag
  4. Example
    1. Project name 'lindgren-2025-carbon-model', Version '1.0.0'
    2. Project URL https://git.bolin.su.se/bolin/lindgren-2025-carbon-model
    3. DOI https://doi.org/10.57669/lindgren-2025-carbon-model-1.0.0
    4. Landing page https://git.bolin.su.se/bolin/lindgren-2025-carbon-model/tree/1.0.0

How to refer to release or state release version in reference (example):