Policies & Funding

The Lamont-Doherty Core Repository serves the national and international ocean research and teaching communities and receives funding from both the National Science Foundation and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Our primary function is to provide for long-term storage and curation of geological materials. In addition, samples from cores and dredges, descriptions of cores and dredges, digital images and other cruise information from the collection at the LDCR are provided to scientific investigators upon receipt of requests. Requests for material for commercial/industry concerns will be fulfilled following the same criteria as those for scientific research where requests are adequately justified and data dissemination plans are provided. Materials for educational purposes and museum displays may also be made available. Finally, we also provide analytical services that we charge at cost. 

Space permitting, the Core Repository will accept cores collected by any scientist or ship assuming they are in good condition, have suitable metadata, and will be made available for scientific use within 2 years. (We recommend PIs contact the curator to ensure that there is space for the deposition of field materials.) The Core Repository policies regarding PI and public access to cores and data apply to all samples in the collection (regardless of funding source) and are consistent with the NSF Public Access Initiative and the OCE Data and Sample Archiving Requirements. Original PIs, their post-docs, and their students have an exclusive-use period of two years from the date of sample collection. Active Phase is used to denote the exclusive-use period, and Archive Phase refers to the period of time following the conclusion of the Active Phase. The Repository works closely with PIs to protect their intellectual and scientific interests in their own samples, as well as in archived samples, working within NSF guidelines. Once samples enter the Archive Phase, sample requests from the broader community will be allowed (subject to the standard review process) and basic data, including the sample descriptions, images, geophysical logging data and accompanying metadata, will be made public. 

Data generated from samples in the LDCR collection are subject to the same two-year period of exclusive use. All data generated on samples from the LDCR (or samples that will become part of the collection following the 2-year moratorium) must be made publicly accessible upon publication or within two years of collection, whichever comes first. To be publicly accessible, the data must be submitted to an open data repository such as SESAR or one of the OCE recommended repositories.

PIs collecting samples to be deposited in the LDCR need to submit full sample metadata, using NCEI metadata logging sheets, along with the material to be archived. 

All users of material or data from the Lamont-Doherty Core Repository are expected to acknowledge the facility in their publications and presentations. In addition, we request that all users provide us with an electronic copy of any resulting publications. Citing NSF-funded community facilities in your acknowledgments helps to spread the word about the importance of our mission to the larger scientific community and the general public and helps justify our support by NSF.

Example: [Cores are archived at / Samples provided by] Lamont-Doherty Core Repository, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.