Publishing data in the Freshwater Metadatabase creates high visibility of your dataset as scientist and other researchers can discover useful datasets for analyses or for starting collaborations. If you are interested in submitting your metadata to the Freshwater Metadatabase, please do not hesitate to contact Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber (BOKU) or write to data@freshwaterbiodiversity.eu.
Here you will find important information for filling the Freshwater Metadatabase questionnaire.
Please do not use the forward/back buttons of your web browser to navigate through the questionnaire; in this case your data might be lost. Use only the buttons in the form.
Please do not forget to save your data using one of the several “Save questionnaire” buttons, which all save the entire questionnaire.
The questionnaire is divided into several information blocks (blue headlines), which change according to the selection of a “dataset type” within the section “General information”. Information on the dataset types can be obtained by clicking on “more information” in the headline.
Within the information blocks there are different headlines, sometimes featuring a checkbox on the left hand site. This checkbox indicates that there is more information available regarding this topic. If you tick the checkbox, a fold-out section with additional questions will appear. Please tick the checkboxes of all mandatory headlines and fill the according fields. At the top of the questionnaire there are two buttons to show/hide all mandatory fold-out sections (Fold out all mandatory fields/Fold in all mandatory fields). Please notice that the main information blocks (blue) will not fold out/in automatically.
Within the questionnaire a colour coding system is used to identify the fields as “mandatory/conditional”, “recommended” and “optional”. Generally the headlines are colour coded, which means that the complete section below is either “mandatory/conditional”, “recommended” or “optional”, unless another colour code is used within the section.
purple: mandatory/conditional
blue: recommended
green: optional
Blank/not filled mandatory fields will be taken as “no data available”.
Each field in the questionnaire features a tooltip. If you are not sure what to enter in a certain field, move your mouse pointer over it and you will get an explanation.
For any additional information (as e.g. for gaps in your data, specific circumstances, or just additional explanations) please use one of the various “comments”-fields. Thank you.
If you close this window you may find the help section right of the login/logout button.
If you want to know which freshwater related datasets are available in a specific region or if you are looking for a dataset that might support your own research, you can consult the Freshwater Metadatabase to find appropriate datasets and get information about their usage requirements.
The Freshwater Metadatabase query tool offers the possibility to select various specifications before you start the search, e.g. the ecosystem type, the region, the organism group or the timeframe. If you click "apply query options" after you have made your choice, you will get a table with appropriate results.
The Freshwater Metadatabase full text search can be queried for any term you are interested in and also leads to the result table.
The result table not only lists the available datasets, but also show the scientific contact persons and offers details to each dataset by clicking on "open view". Data can be downloaded as pdf- or eml-file.
