@inbook {JRN52663,
	title = {History and organization of the EcoTrends project},
	booktitle = {Long-Term Trends in Ecological Systems: A Basis for Understanding Responses to Global Change},
	year = {2013},
	pages = {21-27},
	publisher = {National Technical Information Services},
	organization = {National Technical Information Services},
	chapter = {2},
	address = {Springfield, Virginia},
	abstract = {<p>This chapter describes the internal organization and timeline of the EcoTrends Project, from which the data and recommendations in the subsequent chapters are generated.\&nbsp; The project began in 2004, and its organizational structure expanded over the next six years to include many activities and dozens of individuals from six major groups.\&nbsp; The six major groups are the EcoTrends Project Office, the EcoTrends Editorial Committee, the EcoTrends Technical Committee, participating site scientists, information managers, and technical staff, the Long Term Ecological Research Network Office, and the EcoTrends Socioeconomic Working Group.\&nbsp; The major activities occurred from 2004 to 2010, when this book is completed, are listed in the chapter.</p>
},
	keywords = {atmospheric chemistry, climate change, cross-site comparisons, disturbance, ecological response, ecology, ecosystem, EcoTrends, experimental forests, global change, human demography, human population growth, Long Term Ecological Research (LTER), long-term datasets, precipitation, rangeland, rangeland research stations, surface water chemistry},
	url = {/files/bibliography/13-029-2.pdf},
	author = {C. Laney and Debra C. Peters and Baker, K. S.}
}
@inbook {JRN52674,
	title = {Recommendations for data accessibility},
	year = {2013},
	pages = {216-225},
	publisher = {National Technical Information Services},
	organization = {National Technical Information Services},
	chapter = {16},
	address = {Springfield, Virginia},
	abstract = {<p>The EcoTrends project has generated hundreds of standardized, documented datasets from many sites and scientific fields.\&nbsp; During the process of generating data comparable between many sites and across several organizational networks, novel solutions to technical, organizational, and communication challenges have been created.\&nbsp; This chapter presents ten recommendations for site-level information management and for future synthesis projects.\&nbsp; The recommendations are related to three broad categories: (1) data management and products, (2) project design, and (3) information environments to support synthesis projects. For each recommendation, the chapter provides specific examples of the challenges that EcoTrends faced, the lessons learned, and then explains the recommendation that may help address the challenge in future projects.</p>
},
	keywords = {atmospheric chemistry, climate change, cross-site comparisons, disturbance, ecological response, ecology, ecosystem, EcoTrends, experimental forests, global change, human demography, human population growth, Long Term Ecological Research (LTER), long-term datasets, precipitation, rangeland, rangeland research stations, surface water chemistry},
	url = {/files/bibliography/13-029-16.pdf},
	author = {C. Laney and Baker, K. S. and Debra C. Peters and Ken Ramsey}
}
@conference {50115,
	title = {EcoTrends: Learning how to support synthetic research through innovative solutions},
	booktitle = {LTER All Scientists Meeting},
	year = {2009},
	month = {09/11/2009},
	address = {Estes Park, Colorado},
	abstract = {The EcoTrends project is an LTER network-level synthesis program geared toward making long-term ecological data highly explorable, accessible and comparable for cross-site synthesis research. Five years of working with 50 sites (LTER, USDA ARS, USFS, and other agencies) have offered many lessons that can be utilized as we strive to improve and upgrade EcoTrends services. Here, we describe the project{\textquoteright}s goals and products, discuss lessons learned, and lay out plans for a future system that will better serve the ecological research and information management community.},
	keywords = {cross-site, EcoTrends, LTER},
	author = {C. Laney and Debra C. Peters}
}
@conference {50234,
	title = {Addressing challenges in cross-site synthesis of long-term ecological data},
	booktitle = {Ecological Informatics International Conference},
	series = {International Conference on Ecological Informatics 6},
	year = {2008},
	month = {12/2008},
	address = {Cancun, Mexico},
	abstract = {Long-term ecological datasets are becoming increasingly abundant on the internet, and are available both on websites hosted by the originating sites and/or in online repositories. While sites and networks are increasingly conforming to adopted metadata standards (which themselves continue to evolve to meet modern data collection challenges), the data themselves are often found in seemingly infinite combinations of 1) various formats, ranging from fixed width format to complex Microsoft Excel workbooks, 2) various levels of quality, from raw, unchecked data to flagged and corrected data values, and 3) various levels of time-step aggregations, from the raw data that include every data point measured, to data aggregated into annual means, totals or other estimations. In addition, datasets are documented to varying levels of completeness. Thus, the time-consuming process of preparing data from different sites (or even from different studies) for synthetic analyses and visualization often falls on the researchers interested in making the comparisons, with support of principal investigators and information managers associated with the project or site of origination. Over time, many researchers may have to independently aggregate the same data. With increasing demand for these synthetic analyses, coupled with decreasing availability of time and funding, it is important that these datasets be made not only more accessible, but in forms that allow comparisons and visualizations to be made quickly and in a single website location. To respond to this demand, the EcoTrends project (http://www.ecotrends.info) was initiated in 2004 to synthesize long-term datasets (> 10 years) from many US sites. Here, we discuss how data were obtained from partnering sites; how they were handled, from origination to derivation being made available on the EcoTrends web portal; and how the  website component of this project meets the needs of ecologists. We also discuss lessons learned along the way and present recommendations for future projects.},
	keywords = {ecological, EcoTrends, informatics, long-term},
	author = {C. Laney and Servilla, M. and Debra C. Peters}
}
