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MagIC Help Library |
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MagIC Help Library |
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1.1 Preface
The Magnetics Information Consortium (MagIC) initiative has been established to address the need for a public digital archive for the international magnetics research community. As a multi-user facility MagIC provides a place for the community to archive new data as soon after their collection as reasonable, preferably at the time of publication in the peer-reviewed literature. These data are stored in and served from an Oracle 10x database that is part of the overarching online EarthRef.org database, while software tools are provided to help the scientist in preparing data for automated uploading. The MagIC Databases Team already has transferred the data and metadata of existing magnetic databases (GPMDB, PINT, etc.) created under the auspices of IAGA into the MagIC database.
The databases of the Magnetics Information Consortium (MagIC) thus contain user-contributed data associated with paleomagnetic and rock magnetic sources. Data may be part of data published in Earth sciences journals, theses or books. These data are contributed on a Publication-by-Publication basis and in the form of two corresponding MagIC Format ASCII Text (*.txt) and Microsoft Excel© SmartBook (*.xls) files created by the MagIC Console Software. These SmartBook files are uploaded into the MagIC database by using the MagIC Contribution Wizard.
1.1.1 Goals and Philosophy
The overarching goal of the Magnetics Information Consortium (MagIC) is to develop and maintain databases and associated information technology for the international paleomagnetic, geomagnetic and rock magnetic community. MagIC is hosted under the umbrella of EarthRef.org allowing coordination with other information technology initiatives in the Earth sciences, such as GERM, SBN and ERESE. This facilitates interdisciplinary research, by allowing ready access to relevant information in related disciplines. MagIC serves the larger scientific and educational community by making its databases freely accessible and by providing visualization tools designed for users with various levels of expertise.
The PMAG Portal and the RMAG Portal (still under development) form the access points to a new generation of community-based paleomagnetic and rock magnetic databases. These web portals share the same underlying MagIC Data Model, allowing for searches and access to information in both databases. Users can upload their own data (for free) using the standard MagIC Metadata and Data Model available online as long as these uploads are associated with a citable publication and the user have registered. Substantial effort has gone into making the data model flexible enough to accommodate the broad range of data collected in rock and paleomagnetic studies. Where feasible, contributors are encouraged to upload all their measurements and descriptions of lab procedures, in addition to their higher level (published) results. Digital information that does not fit readily into the MagIC always can be uploaded and archived in the ERDA online archive.
MagIC is managed with the help of in particular a Steering Committee and a Metadata and Method Codes Committee that both have a wide representation from the paleomagnetic and rock magnetic research community, nationally and internationally. MagIC also promotes a community dialog on how modern paleo, rock and geomagnetic databases should evolve, and what online tools are needed for data analysis. The dialog includes sponsoring discussions at workshops and promoting special sessions at scientific meetings. MagIC has evolved substantially since its inception at the PMAG Workshop held in March 2002 at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.
From the start MagIC has been incorporating PMAG data from the IAGA databases, namely GPMDB, PINT2003, TRANS, PSVRL and SECVR. However, the new data model allows contributors to archive more information than before, and provides ready access to the data online without the need to resort to commercial database software. RMAG is the first attempt to generate a database of rock magnetic data.
1.1.2 User and Data Policy
All data in the MagIC database are User-Contributed and uploaded on a Publication-by-Publication basis. The MagIC database primarily contains Activated Contributions from Peer-Reviewed Publications and Student Theses, including those In Press. These uploads are available to the entire MagIC userbase and are permanently archived under a strict version control. The various user actions, contribution types, levels of data ownership and data deletions are explained in detail below.
All database contributors and users are to adhere to the EarthRef.org Copyright Policy.
Data sets for publications In Preparation or In Review can be uploaded as Private Contributions Only and can be accessed by the data owners alone. These Private Contributions optionally can be set up by the data owner to have Group Access allowing select groups of users to access such hidden MagIC data sets with a group name and password.
Unpublished Data Sets that cannot be published (elsewhere) in the peer-reviewed literature can be uploaded into the MagIC database as an EarthRef.org Data Publication. These uploads should be accompanied with a list of authors, affiliations, a title, a short abstract and a technical note that describes the analytical methods applied. These publications will be assigned an EarthRef.org DOI and their citation will be permanently stored in the EarthRef.org Reference Database.
Activated Contributions will undergo Data Reviews by editors and referees representing the international paleo- and rock magnetic research community. These Data Reviews are meant to help improve the quality of the data uploads and are not meant to critique the science and conclusions presented in the publications.
Data owners can manage a contribution to the MagIC database in three different ways:
Once a contribution has been uploaded into the MagIC database, the data owner can restrict its access or provide open access to the world, again in three different ways:
There can only be one data owner per contribution. However, data ownership can change based on the following hierarchy:
Activated Contributions cannot be deleted by the data owners. Private Contributions remain in the database until the data owner replaces it with an activated update or activates an existing private upload. If a private contribution has been Inactive for more than 2 years it will be removed from the data holdings by the MagIC Database Team.
The MagIC Database Team reserves the right to delete any Incorrect or Fraudulent Contributions without any further notice.
Each Activated Contribution will be assigned a Data Editor, who will select at least one Referee to review the data contribution for its correctness, completeness and clarity only. These reviews are meant to help improve the quality of the uploaded data in the MagIC Database. However, these reviews explicitly are not concerned with the science and conclusions presented in the publication.
Once the data review(s) are complete, the data owner should prepare an update of the data contribution and upload this as soon as possible into the MagIC Database. All activated versions of these data contributions will be retained in the database, will receive a time stamp and version number, and can be retroactively included in database searches.
1.1.3 MagIC Database Team and Committee Structure
The MagIC Database Team is responsible for the development and maintenance of the MagIC Database and Website. This team exists of the principal investigators, associated researchers, software engineers and undergraduate students.
The Steering Committee is intended to determine the direction to be followed in the development of paleomagnetic and rock magnetic databases, and includes broad international representation from the overall magnetics community as well as people involved in database development in related fields of Earth sciences.
Metadata and Method Codes Committee
The charge for the Metadata and Method Codes Committee is to engage in continuing broad consultation with the magnetics community on the kinds of information that need to be preserved in magnetic databases, and develop an appropriate metadata template for use in paleomagnetic and rock magnetic databases. In particular, it will be necessary to develop metadata structures that can be effectively exploited for existing lines of research while preserving the flexibility for accessing information required to develop new research ideas. The results of such consultation should then be incorporated into a metadata structure, which will be reviewed by the Steering Committee and presented to researchers in the international community for comment prior to finalizing the database structure. This committee will also be in charge of adding and editing the required method codes and controlled vocabularies.
Editorial and Review Committee
The charge for the MagIC Editors is to oversee the review process of all data submissions into the MagIC Database. They will assign each data contribution to any of the potential reviewers that also may include members outside of this committee.
Geological Timescale Committee
The charge for the Geological Timescale Committee is to work towards a nominal timescale to be used in the MagIC Database and will enhance its search capabilities and helps in the interpretation and compilation of disparate data sets.
The charge for the Paleolocations Committee is to work towards a nominal plate motion model through geological time to be used in the MagIC Database and will enhance its search capabilities and helps in the interpretation and compilation of disparate data sets.
1.1.4 History and Timeline
MagIC evolved from the PMAG Workshop held at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, from 24-26 March 2002. The Abstract Volume for this workshop is available online. At this workshop it was agreed that there is a critical need to update and integrate existing magnetic database efforts sponsored by IAGA to take advantage of the technological advances provided by modern web-based data handling capabilities. In September 2002 a small workshop was held at the Institute for Rock Magnetism at the University of Minnesota to discuss the new design of a new rock magnetic database and its integration with the efforts discussed at PMAG2002. A short report is published in EOS and is available online.
Three development stages mark MagIC's short history. In Phase I we focused on an internal review of the MagIC Data Model, the design of the Oracle 10x Database, the design of the SmartBooks, the coding of the MagIC Console Software and extensive testing. Also the PmagPy data analysis software was developed allowing scientists to translate paleomagnetic measurement data into the MagIC format. In Phase II we started to focus on the design and implementation of the Online Drilldown Interface, to populate, maintain and optimize the MagIC Database, and to implement Advanced Visualizations in the MagIC web portals. Currently we are in Phase III whereby we are planning to implement an Editorial and Reviewing System, we will start to use predominantly Flash, Web 2.0, AJAX and XML in our web and database interfaces, and we will start to work toward full Interoperability with other online databases using Webservices.
1.1.5 Acknowledgements
This Help Library is a public domain document to support the Magnetics Information Consortium (MagIC) in its efforts to promote and facilitate an Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure for the international paleomagnetic, rock magnetic and geomagnetic community. This document came together as a result of discussions between the members of the MagIC Steering Committee and MagIC Metadata Committee formed during the first PMAG Workshop held in La Jolla (USA) in March 2002. It is being updated continuously to make certain that all tools and software can be easily used without too much guidance. To view who is involved in the MagIC consortium, please visit the http://earthref.org/MAGIC/whoswho.htm website.
MagIC is supported by NSF Grants EAR03-18672, EAR07-44107 and EAR07-44108.