Terms Of Use
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Terms and Conditions for Website Use
This website is designed for both public and academic use. You may use our systems and services only for lawful purposes. Use of digital materials obtained from our systems are licensed under varying Creative Commons licenses. You may browse freely, but you may not circulate or publish materials you obtained from this site if you do not accept the terms of providing adequate citation.
How to Cite
All data obtained from EarthChem should be adequately cited following license-specific requirements and/or the following:
EarthChem Library Data Citation
Datasets published in the EarthChem Library (ECL) are allocated a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), and any future publications resulting from your use of these data should include a data citation which includes this DOI. The dataset license can be found on the dataset landing page.
Cite the dataset with its dataset DOI in the References section of your publication.
Format the citation: Author(s) (Publication Year): Title. Publisher. Identifier. Data Accessed.
Example: Kurz, M.D.; Curtice, J. (2018): Whole Rock Helium Data from ODP Site U1256D. Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance (IEDA). http://dx.doi.org/10.1594/IEDA/100734. Accessed 2025-08-14.
Synthesis database or Portal Citation
Downloads from a Synthesis database or Portal should be cited by giving the date and, if possible, parameters of the download. To cite a synthesis database or portal, please reference its URL in text and in figure captions:
PetDB: https://earthchem.org/petdb
EarthChem Portal: http://portal.earthchem.org/
Example: “The data were downloaded from the PetDB Database (https://earthchem.org/petdb) on 31 November, 2024, using the following parameters: feature name = Gakkel Ridge and rock classification= basalt.”
We strongly encourage you to also cite the original scientists who contributed to the downloaded dataset or create a secondary bibliography for work that uses large datasets. Many journals will accept this as a supplementary material file. This type of citation helps ensure that the hard work performed by members of our community is acknowledged properly.
For PetDB, you may also add this publication in the reference list:
- Lehnert, K., Su, Y., Langmuir, C., Sarbas, B., & Nohl, U. (2000). A global geochemical database structure for rocks. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 1, 1012, doi:10.1029/1999GC000026
Accuracy
We make no claims to accuracy of the data identification, acquisition parameters, processing methods, navigation, database entries, or reference information. We ask that you notify us immediately of any contributions that contain objectionable material.
Contributing Content
By contributing content to the EarthChem Library (ECL) you warrant that 1) your content is original to you and/or is licensed and fully cleared to permit your use and submission to ECL, and 2) that your content does not violate or breach any of these Terms of Use. You will need an ORCID ID to contribute content and access certain features of the ECL.
Deletion of Content
Please contact us if you would like to delete any of your content.
Failure to Comply
In the case of non-compliance or misuse of services, EarthChem reserves the right to disable access without notice.
Contact
If you have any comments or concerns about our services, please contact us.
Acknowledgement
EarthChem is hosted at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and supported by the National Science Foundation. These terms of use were last updated in October 2025.
