2. Overview of Policy

This document outlines the policy and procedures for distributing ODP and DSDP samples and data to research scientists, curators, and educators. This document also defines the obligations that sample and data recipients incur.

The specific objectives of the ODP policy are to:

• ensure availability of samples and data to scientific party members so they can fulfill the objectives of the drilling leg and their responsibilities to ODP;
• encourage scientific analyses over a wide range of research disciplines by providing samples to the scientific community;
• preserve core material as an archive for future description and observations, for nondestructive analyses, and for sampling; and
• disseminate scientific results from postcruise research.

2.1. Sample Distribution

ODP and DSDP samples are generally distributed for research projects that can be completed within two to three years. Samples are given or loaned to persons in the following four categories:

• scientists who participate on specific drilling legs as shipboard or shore-based members of a "scientific party" that has been formally approved by ODP, and whose requests have been approved by the Sample Allocation Committee (SAC);
• scientists who wish to conduct research on ODP or DSDP materials and to publish the results, but who are not necessarily associated with a specific leg;
• curators of museums and collections; and
• educators.

See Section 4 and Section 5 for details about the individual requirements associated with receiving samples in each of these categories.

Within the "moratorium" of each leg, which extends from the time the leg begins (i.e., the ship sails) to 12 months after it ends (i.e., the ship returns to port), only members of the scientific party (including approved shore-based researchers) are permitted to receive core samples and associated data (see Section 4). Sample requests from scientists not formally associated with the scientific party will be considered after the moratorium has expired (see Section 5).

2.2. Data Distribution

Data produced from samples taken for routine shipboard analyses are available during the moratorium to the entire shipboard party and to approved shore-based participants. After the moratorium expires, all cruise data are made available to everyone. Data from all DSDP and ODP cruises are available from the ODP Data Librarian. Data from ODP Leg 171B and beyond are also available on the ODP World Wide Web site at http://www-odp.tamu.edu/database/, or from the ODP Data Librarian.

2.3. Publication Distribution

At the end of each drilling leg, ODP publishes a set of two volumes known as the Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, which consist of an Initial Reports volume and a Scientific Results volume.

The Initial Reports volume is prepared by the shipboard scientific party and contains the scientific and engineering results from each ODP leg. This volume is distributed approximately one year postcruise.

The Scientific Results volume contains peer-reviewed papers, prepared by scientific party members, that present the results of their postcruise scientific research from an ODP leg. Upon acceptance and revision, Scientific Results volume papers are processed for publication on the ODP Web site (http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/.). The Scientific Results volume contents are published on CD-ROM four years postcruise. A printed hardcover book is produced with the Scientific Results CD-ROM at the same time. The book contains the table of contents for the entire Scientific Results volume and a synthesis paper that summarizes the postcruise research related to the leg. The CD-ROM is also sold separately. All publications are available from the ODP Distribution Center (distribution@iodp.tamu.edu). Publications beginning with Initial Reports Volume 166 and Scientific Results Volume 152 are also available on the ODP Web site at http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/.

To fulfill their obligations to ODP, scientists are given the option of publishing their postcruise results in either the Scientific Results volume, or in an appropriate peer-reviewed scientific journal or book that publishes in English. See Section 4.4. or Section 5.1.c., and Appendix A, for details on the steps to follow in order to fulfill the ODP obligations.