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Downloading Data in EcoPlots

Owned by Leah Gustafson (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 30 Apr 2024 by TERN Data
5 min read

When the user is satisfied with the results generated from the search, click the Get Data button image-20240313-030955.png at the top of the Filter panel on the Search page to initiate the package request.

Sign In

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

Including Attributes with Download

Once the user selects the data, click the Get Data button and log in. The user will be presented with a screen that allows them to select attributes they want 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:

Users can select relevant attributes (certain attributes are pre-selected for convenience by default).

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 the dataset for download. Users must provide the dataset's title to be uniquely identifiable. The title should be self-descriptive (note: this will be the title of your dataset for citation purposes). Users 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 users to select the files they wish to include in the data download. By default, the package includes a CSV and a GeoJSON file, but you can also include the TERN Ontology CSV file or a combination of files.

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

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

  • TERN Ontology CSV: It contains all information about 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, such 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.

 

 

The system will update the progress bar to reflect the package's processing status.

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 on 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 data in a ZIP file. The Download button triggers 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, how many new datasets are added, and how old datasets are modified between query executions.

  • Mint DOI will initiate the minting of 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.

The title and description of the data package are compulsory fields to mint a DOI; Please provide an appropriate title and description that reflect the dataset.

 

 

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.

Next page: EcoPlots Downloads

 

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