Downloading Data in EcoPlots

When you are satisfied with the results that you have generated from your search, click the Download button at the top of the Filter panel on the Search page to initiate the package request.

Sign In

If you are not already logged in, click on the Sign in button on the top right and follow the steps outlined in the Logging in to TERN data portals help page.

Including Attributes with download

Once you have selected the data you want to download, clicked the download button and logged in, you will be presented with the screen that allow you to select which attributes you would like to include with the data csv and GeoJson files. For example, let’s say that in your search query you selected the stem diameter, stem height and scientific name parameters and clicked the download button and are then presented with the following screen:

You will then be able to select attributes that you think are relevant (by default, certain attributes are already pre-selected for convenience). To select (or deselect) attributes, click on the attribute name, with green signifying “selected” and white “unselected”. Once you have selected your attributes, click the “proceed to Download” button.

Data Cart

The next step is the Data Cart page, where the system prepares to package your dataset ready for download. You are required to provide the title for your dataset so that it is uniquely identifiable. The title should be descriptive of the dataset (note: this will be the title of your dataset for citation purposes). You can also add an optional Description to give more information about your dataset. All your dataset queries will stay in your account for future use.

In this example, the Filter section is expanded to show the parameters of the search results used for this dataset. The title is informative and human-readable; more detailed information has been included in the Description field.

The output format dropdown menu allows you to select the files that you wish to include in the data download. By default, the package includes a CSV and a GeoJSON file, but you can also opt to include the TERN Ontology CSV file.

• CSV: contains all basic information about datasets, sites, visits and ecological observations in a series of CSV files. No further data filtering, cleaning or processing necessary.
  More information about TERN CSV files

• GeoJSON: All basic information about datasets, sites, visits and ecological observations returned as a standard GeoJSON object. No further data filtering, cleaning or processing necessary.

• TERN Ontology CSV: It contains all information about to the datasets, sites, visits, ecological observations and all their related attributes. This output establishes links to all informative resources and controlled vocabularies necessary to fully describe the observable properties, feature types, instruments and protocol methods. This output requires more advanced data processing skills as joining tables using external tools like MS Excel, R, Python or any other programming language.

After filling in the details, press the “Request Data” button to continue.

The My Downloads page will load, and the new package will be highlighted in green.

When your data package is ready to download, you will be sent an email to your registered email ID containing the download link and the citation details for the data.

The entry in the My Downloads page will turn white and the download icon will appear in the Download column. Clicking the download icon will download the ZIP of your data files to your browser’s default download folder.

Actions

The three vertical dots in the Actions column on the far right expand to reveal a menu.

• Selecting Download will download the ZIP file of the data. The download button will trigger the same query, but the dataset extracted will be from the data snapshot of the latest version of EcoPlots. Therefore, the results vary depending on when the query is executed and how many new datasets are added, and old datasets are modified between query execution.

• Mint DOI will initiate the process of minting a DOI (more information is provided in the section below).

• Edit will enable you to alter the title and description of your data package.

• Choosing Delete will allow you to remove the package from the list in your My downloads.
  

Minting a DOI (digital object identifier)

Users should choose to mint a DOI (digital object identifier) when they wish to use a dataset as part of a published or citable scholarly work. Please note that this title will be used for citation purposes and this is the last time that you will be able to edit it.

The minting process automatically updates the data package to include the DOI in its metadata. When minted, the DOI will appear in the DOI column. All datasets with DOI will persist, and users can get the same dataset that was created.

The DOI link will allow you to view the updated package information.