cc: Michael Manton <m.manton@bom.gov.au>
date: Fri Jul 16 11:21:16 2004
from: Phil Jones <p.jones@uea.ac.uk>
subject: Data access to GHCN etc
to: "Thomas C Peterson" <Thomas.C.Peterson@noaa.gov>

      Dear Tom and Mike,

          There is an issue of data access that we should address at the next AOPC.
    Maybe we can discuss it also when the GCOS Imp. Plan is discussed next month
    in Geneva.
         I was alerted to it by Tom a while ago and this has been reiterated by others more
    recently.  I'm being hassled by skeptics to release paleo data and also by others for
    the station temperature data used in the CRU datasets.
       Here is an example from the paleo person  ---
        "For example, it is ridiculous that Gordon Jacoby has not archived so much data, or
   Lonnie Thompson for that matter.  Because the data is being immediately used for public
   policy advocacy, the archiving issue becomes quite material and print publication in
   microscopic graphs hardly discharges public obligations. In theory, AGU policy prohibits
   citation of non-archived data sets in its journals (eg. GRL), but the policy is
   unfortunately not enforced.  I have begun trying to encourage some of the funding agencies
   and journals to apply their existing policies. If you lent your authority to this, they
   would probably react pretty fast."
       If AGU adhered to this policy, then the number of people submitting there would reduce
    dramatically !
       The reason for emailing though is that I'm also being hassled by Warwick Hughes for
    the CRU station dataset. We put up the gridded fields, but not the station data. Over the
    last year or so, I've told people they can't have the station data - go to the GHCN site
    and get it. I knew that avenue has been closed, but it got some of them off my back.
    I'm not that inclined to release it to Hughes (who Mike knows and maybe Tom). All he
    wants to do is to show how I've made some mistake or used some incorrect data for
    some stations.
        There are a number of issues, though:
    1. Should Res. 40 stop GHCN data being released?
    2. Should I be hiding behind it too?
    3. When does IPR kick in with the work I've put in on the CRU data?
    4. Should people like this be able to request this kind of data?
    5. NCAR release a precursor to GHCN - just WWR/MCDW+lots of other data, but in an
        unfriendly format.
      No rush for thoughts/views.
     A lot of the paleo people just ignore the skeptics. Maybe I should.
    Cheers
    Phil

   Prof. Phil Jones
   Climatic Research Unit        Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
   School of Environmental Sciences    Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
   University of East Anglia
   Norwich                          Email    p.jones@uea.ac.uk
   NR4 7TJ
   UK
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