HMANA DATA SUBMISSION POLICY
Revision 200501

The Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) maintains a library of Raptor Migration Data that has been collected by many individuals, hawk watches, organizations and agencies (collectively "hawk watches). Submission of raptor migration data to HMANA is made by hawk watches in agreement with, and controlled by, this HMANA Data Submission Policy. Hawk watches retain ownership of their raptor migration data and give permission to HMANA to redistribute their raptor migration data to qualified users who conform to the HMANA Data Release Policy.

 

The HMANA Data Release Policy describes the full set of requirements placed on data users as a condition of their use of HMANA supplied data. Key points of the Data Release Policy include adherence to ethical behaviors, appropriate citations, thresholds for co-authorship, and adherence to appropriate scientific principles and peer review. All users of HMANA supplied data must seek and receive permission from HMANA. As a service to the prospective user and to the hawk watches, HMANA will facilitate the process and obtain permissions from the hawk watches when various thresholds are reached in accordance with this Data Submission Policy. HMANA will provide data to the researcher after permissions have been obtained.

 

HMANA recognizes that hawk watches want to exercise varying levels of control on the distribution and release of the raptor migration data they provide to HMANA. Therefore, HMANA provides a flexible data release policy, which may be administered by the hawk watch through set-up options in HawkCount. Three general categories of oversight are provided to allow each hawk watch to individually manage data release permissions:

 

• Category 1: No permissions will be sought by HMANA, regardless of the volume or type of data being used. In effect, this option enables the hawk watch to delegate the responsibility of data stewardship to HMANA, allowing HMANA to give permissions directly to the requestor without contacting the hawk watch. Hawk watches will be notified of all requests to use their data. Researchers will be required to acknowledge all hawk watches whose data are used in their publications.
• Category 2: Permission for data release from the hawk watch will be sought by HMANA if 20% or more of data used by the requestor, as measured in count days, is derived from that hawk watch. For awareness and feedback, hawk watches will be notified of all requests to use their data. Researchers will be required to acknowledge all hawk watches whose data are used in their publications.
• Category 3: Permission for data release from a hawk watch will be sought by HMANA if the requestor will use any data from that hawk watch. Researchers will be required to acknowledge all hawk watches whose data are used in their publications, as well as conform to any other conditions specified by the administrator of that hawk watch.

 

Additionally, for those hawk watches that select the no-view option as part of their site setup, public data access is password protected and data cannot be viewed on HawkCount. Individuals who wish to view data from these hawk watches must seek permission through HMANA from the administrator of the hawk watch, whereupon HMANA will provide access to the data with permission from the site administrator.

 

Hawk watches are asked to maintain the correctness of their email, telephone, postal and other contact information in HawkCount. This allows HMANA to notify the administrator of the hawk watch when requests for data release are received, to seek permissions when necessary, and for other important communications about HawkCount and HMANA. If HMANA cannot reach a hawk watch by email, diligent efforts will be made to reach the hawk watch through other means. Ultimately however, if the hawk watch cannot be contacted, this process will result in HMANA assuming stewardship of these raptor migration data in perpetuity or until contact with the hawk watch is re-established.

 

Unless explicitly restricted by the site administrator in HawkCount, HMANA will make available to the requestor the contact information of the site administrator for each hawk watch whose data will be used by that requestor. This is important to allow prospective data users to learn more about the data, methodologies and site dynamics directly from the hawk watches themselves, and to seek co-authorship from the hawk watches.

 

Privacy Statement: Other data collected in the HawkCount database are names and contact information of site administrators, observers, other contributors, and email forwarding lists. These data are privately held by HMANA and are not viewable at HawkCount. HMANA will not redistribute or otherwise supply personal contact information to any third party without permission.

 

It is expected that this Data Submission Policy is sufficiently broad to cover the varying requirements of all hawk watches, however if other unanticipated requirements are needed, please contact HMANA directly. Definitions of key terms may be found in the attached Glossary. Your questions and comments regarding the Data Submission Policy may be submitted to The HMANA Data Curator via email to data@hmana.org.