Guidelines for Researchers — Niwot Ridge LTER

**Conduct research at Niwot Ridge**

Internationally recognized for its research program, Niwot Ridge LTER offers a diversity of expertise, infrastructure, landscapes, and organisms to test your ideas about mountain ecosystems. The very foundation of our LTER is collaboration, and by conducting research at Niwot, you can contribute to a legacy of science that advances theory and informs conservation. All Niwot Ridge researchers are expected to abide by our code of conduct.

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Resources for Researchers

We host facilities and field research infrastructure to support ongoing and new research. Research infrastructure is managed by our staff to generate data that is quality controlled and freely available. A detailed map of existing research locations on Niwot Ridge can be found here.

Permits

All major manipulative experiments will be discussed with the NWT scientific community, with the intent of both increasing collaboration and maximizing field site utilization. **Click here** to apply for a research permit.

**Safety**

Annual orientation attendance is required to make sure that everyone coming to Niwot Ridge as part of LTER. This orientation provides information on safety, our code of conduct, transportation, and data policies. Find the full safety orientation document **here**. Find the NWT code of conduct and information on reporting **here**.

**Logistics**

Transportation from Boulder to MRS and Cable Gate parking area can be found **here**. Please see the 2022 NWT **risk mitigation plan** for further guidelines on conducting research this summer on Niwot Ridge. An anonymous form for reporting concerns or incidents can be found **here**.

Screen%2BShot%2B2019-04-24%2Bat%2B2.22.47%2BPM.jpg — Mountain Research Station

The MRS provides lodging, parking, and classroom space for summer programs. There are cabins, a cafeteria, 6 classrooms, 2 wet labs, and 3 outdoor activity areas. Find MRS safety guidelines **here**.

how to Submit Your Data

Decide what to archive

Best practice is to archive quality-controlled raw data (rather than calculated fields)

2. Organize & clean your data

Helpful tips for prepping your data can be found here .

3. Initiate metadata preparation together with the Niwot Ridge Information Manager

Access the detailed instructions from the button below.

REMINDER! All data collected with NWT LTER funds must be archived in collaboration with NWT’s information manager to ensure that it is discoverable through the NWT data catalog. Please do not independently archive NWT data elsewhere without first consulting with our current information manager, Dr. Sarah Elmendorf.

detailed Instructions on submitting data To THe NWT Catalog

Submit A Publication

Share your findings

If you are using our datasets in your research, or if you are conducting research at Niwot directly, we want to know! Use this form to share your publications with us. For questions, email: lternwt@colorado.edu

Submit A Publication Form

Name

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

Title of Article

DOI

Full Citation

only required if DOI not provided

Have the data for this publication been submitted to the Niwot IM

Yes

No

Links to archived datasets used in this publication

Provide a doi to the data used in the analyses, such as doi:10.6073/pasta/cd03361ac0c1cbc686ad71da7e14f79d OR provide a url that resolves to the dataset if you don't know the doi

Submit an outreach project

Share your engagement efforts with us!

We would love to know how you are engaging scientists, students, and the general public in your work. If you have an outreach project, please tell us all about it with this form. Or email directly to: alexandra.rose@colorado.edu

Submit A Publication Form

Name

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

Name of PI, Grad Student, Most Important Person who led this outreach effort

Other NWT or Non-NWT personnel that were involved?

Number of NWT personnel involved

Date of Activity (Note: if your activity spanned multiple days, choose the start date here and please note the duration in the following question!)

MM

DD

YYYY

Description of activity. Give as much detail as you can. Include: what did you do? what were your goals? who did you partner with to make the activity happen? will you be doing something similar again?

Number of audience reached. Please provide details like: 30 Adults, 60 Children, 5 teachers

Please provide any details about the demographic composition of your audience that you may have. I.e. age; ethnicity; race; level of schooling; income; etc.

Notes about successes/challenges, impact as far as broadening participation of groups underrepresented in science fields...

Other (feel free to add anything else of interest/importance here that you'd like to keep track of)

Acknowledging land, people, and data in your publications

All of our data products are released to the public and may be freely copied, distributed, edited, remixed, and built under the condition that you provide acknowledgement.

Our Authorship Guidelines can be found here.
Publications, models and data products that make use of these data sets must include proper acknowledgement, including citing data sets in a similar way to citing a journal article. Here is an overview of why citing data is important.
The following acknowledgment should accompany any publication that makes use of Niwot resources: Logistical support and/or data were provided by the NSF-supported Niwot Ridge LTER program (NWT VII: NSF DEB – 1637686, NWT VIII: NSF DEB-2224439)
Here is the template for a land acknowledgement statement for Niwot manuscripts: The authors respectfully acknowledge and recognize our responsibility to the original and current caretakers of the land, air, and water at Niwot Ridge: the Ute, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Paleoindian peoples and all of their ancestors and descendants. We are grateful to have the opportunity to work on these homelands.