Because of its tax-exempt status and the source of its support,
MBARI has a moral obligation and legal incentive to make its information base and results
widely available. In meeting this obligation, we must take the following needs into
consideration:
A. Protection of the interests of MBARI employees whose professional advancement is
dependent on such data and results.
B. Protection of MBARI's reputation against misuse or inappropriate use of our material
resources.
C. Protection against unauthorized commercial exploitation of MBARI results and
resources.
D. The need to protect our special relationship with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the
Aquarium's revenue interests.
To implement this obligation, the following guidelines have been created:
- Decisions on data collection and dissemination will generally fall under the purview of
the MBARI Data Users Committee (M-DUC).
- M-DUC will determine which data sets are "routine", and therefore available
for general release immediately after quality control, and which are proprietary, and
therefore not immediately distributed.
- The M-DUC will make every attempt to set standard formats for routine data such that it
can be distributed over the Web to requestors without further investment of MBARI staff
time.
- M-DUC will determine the embargo period for proprietary data, generally from 1 to 2
years.
- Embargoes can extend beyond two years only with the approval of the President/CEO.
- For those data streams available to outside requestors but unavailable over the Web,
such as special video clips, the ITD Director will determine, on a case-by-case basis,
whether die costs of meeting a request will be met by MBARI or will be billed to the
requester. In the latter case, actual costs will be billed at a standard billing rate plus
actual material costs; a good fair estimate will be provided on a case by case basis in
advance to the requester.
- MBARI data, software, videos, photographs, and other graphic material must be
copyrighted (and marked accordingly) to protect against misappropriation. Unmarked video
will be released only on the basis of a written agreement
- When material cannot be duplicated (biological and geological samples, for example), the
cognizant MBARI investigator and the curator of the MBARI Sample Archive must approve the
qualifications of a requester and the reasonableness of a request (size and nature of
sample(s) requested, availability of resources to carry out the proposed studies, etc.)
before such material can be released.
Questions about the policy should be directed to the Director of the ITD Division and
M-DUC. If extensions or clarification of the policy are required, they will be developed
by M-DUC and the Director of the ITD Division, and approved by the President/CEO.