Governance and data stewards

EPD governance

The EPD community consists of contributors to the database and scientists having a bona fide interest in the EPD, who must register in advance with the database manager. This community elects the chairperson, and one or two vice-chairperson(s) coordinating the EPD activity. Nominees for the office of EPD chairperson need to be proposed before the elections by a proposer and seconder. The term of office is normally 4 years but the term is at the discretion of the board. Scientists interested in helping in the curation of EPD data are encouraged to become a data steward.

The EPD board consists of the chairpersons together with the data stewards, and the EPD database manager, and takes decisions on all aspects of the database. Decisions by the board must be unanimous. The board may call for a general vote of the community either at an open meeting or through an online poll. In such cases decisions are taken by majority vote.

The EPD board aims at organizing one open science meeting within a 4-year period facilitating an interaction between the board and the community.

Data stewards

Stewards are responsible for curating the data prior to uploading it to the database, and have the ability to correct data that are already stored in the database. As these are time-consuming tasks that require expert knowledge in pollen analysis, the workload is shared. People interested in becoming a Data Steward should contact to discuss further.