Usage Policies
Data Usage Policy
All data collected by NEON and provided as data products, with the exception of data related to rare, threatened, or endangered (RTE) species, are released to the 鈥減ublic domain鈥� under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 鈥淣o Rights Reserved鈥� (). No copyright has been applied to NEON data; any person may copy, modify, or distribute the data, for commercial or non-commercial purposes, without asking for permission. NEON data may still be subject to other laws or rights such as for privacy, and NEON makes no warranties about the data and disclaims all liability. When using or citing NEON data, no implication should be made about endorsement by NEON.
In most countries, data and facts are not copyrightable. By putting NEON data into the public domain, we encourage broad use, particularly in scientific analyses and data aggregations. However, please be mindful of the following scholarly norms:
- NEON data should be used in a way that is mindful of the limitations of the data, using the documentation associated with the data packages as a guide.
- Unlike most scientific data, NEON data is not associated with individual authors; rather, the 鈥榓uthor鈥� of data produced by the Observatory is NEON itself. Attributions and citations should be made to NEON for any use of the data.
Sample Usage Policy
The majority of NEON samples are archived in the Biorepository at Arizona State University. To learn more about ASU-specific guidelines, please visit the .
Across all repositories that NEON partners with, balances the need to provide researchers with access to NEON samples for a wide-variety of purposes while preserving the future research potential of those samples. This is a living document that is subject to change over time.