Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas) Data Use Policy


All content of the EJAtlas inventory is publicly available ONLY in the case sheets. The bulk dataset is NOT available or downloadable in other formats such as excel or csv.

The content of the case sheets is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. You are free to use the work for non-commercial purposes only, with attribution given to the EJatlas and a link to this page. The resulting work must be distributed under the same license or one similar.

We are in the process of updating the Data Use Policy and adopting a structured Open Access procedure for the EJAtlas dataset by the end of 2023. Meanwhile we will not be able to share the dataset. If you are interested in being notified when the data is accessible under the new Open Access terms, please contact us. 

However, we are happy to discuss academic or activist research collaborations which involve the analysis of a large sample of, or the entire dataset, on the basis of the following guiding principles.


Guiding Principles

Acceptable Use: Use of the dataset will be restricted to academic, research, educational, journalistic, recreational, or other not-for-profit professional purposes. Any other uses for the Data Set or its derived products will require explicit permission from the dataset owner. The EJatlas dataset as it appears on the website is currently available through a creative commons license, however, there is an ethical obligation for proper citation, acknowledgments, and contacting the data providers to ensure proper use. See further details below.

Reciprocity: The use of the EJatlas data is based on the principle of reciprocity. Because the dataset relies on meticulous and careful data entry work, moderation, and coordination that comes from data contributors, volunteers, and core staff, data use for download will be privileged for those who have made a valuable contribution to the data-set that they are studying.

Collaboration and Co-Production of Knowledge: The Data Set builds on the long history of work that social movements, researchers, and civil society organizations have been involved in for the last several decades. It has been directed and compiled by researchers and made accessible in the spirit of open scientific collaboration. Data Users are thus strongly encouraged to consider consultation, collaboration, and/or co-authorship with the Data set creators and acknowledgment of those who have filled out the forms.

Activism: The Atlas was created as a tool for activism for Environmental Justice. The atlas and related research should support communities suffering social, environmental, and health impacts and aim to work towards their well-being. Research that demonstrates value for promoting environmental justice and where the researchers are doing engaged research will be privileged for data access.

 

Data Use Guidelines 

Permission to download EJatlas data sets is granted to the Data User subject to the following guidelines:

The Data User realizes that these data sets are being actively used by others for ongoing research and that communication and coordination are necessary to prevent duplicate publication. The Data User also realizes that the data may be misinterpreted if taken out of context. Data are being collected by scientists in academic and other research organizations with the requirement to publish scientific papers. The Data User, therefore, agrees to contact the responsible persons for the EJatlas to check on other uses of the data, receive information on data, and discuss collaboration and/or co-authorship.

Notification. The Data User will notify the EJAtlas when any derivative work or publication based on or derived from the Data Set is distributed. The Data User is requested and encouraged to send reprints, pdfs or provide copies, or on-line access to, any derived digital products. Notification will include an explanation of how the Data Set was used to produce the derived work. We would like to include such publications in a list of EJatlas related works.

The Data User agrees not to redistribute original data and documentation without permission from the EJatlas or in a manner not in agreement with the site policy.

Normal ethics apply to the co-authorship of scientific publications. Users of data stored in the EJatlas should consider inviting the original data contributor to be a co-author(s) of any resultant publications if that contributor’s data are a major portion of the dataset analyzed, or if a data contributor makes a significant contribution to the analysis of the data or to the interpretation of results.

External parties interested in using EJatlas data and/or derived products should fill out a request form. All requests for data must be approved by the co-directors and the core coordinating team. There will be a joint decision taken based upon current research and technical work as to whether or not short-term collaboration is in the best direction of the working group. If so, the discussion will then focus on how to best collaborate with the EJatlas group. Publications that make extensive use of the database are encouraged to propose co-authorship to ensure data is understood in context.

Amongst the 300 people who have been involved in different aspects of the EJatlas project at some time, the core group is made up of a subset of participants who maintain the infrastructure of the EJAtlas. The EJatlas working group co-authors are expected to be active participants in either the intellectual development and/or the writing/analysis of the manuscript as well as being able to understand, articulate, and defend the proposed research. Invitation to participate in a paper may also include not just the core group but others that the Directors think should be invited because of their substantial contribution in that area of research.

Use of EJatlas data and derived data products is allowed only for research and writing papers — no re-serving of the data on a different website or production of derived products is allowed. Under no circumstances should authorship be attributed to data contributors, individually or collectively, without their explicit consent.

 

Disclaimer

While substantial efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of data and documentation contained in this Data Set, complete accuracy of data and metadata cannot be guaranteed. All data and metadata are made available "as is". The Data User holds all parties involved in the production or distribution of the Data Set harmless for damages resulting from its use. The EJatlas has made a good faith effort in providing quality data but provides NO WARRANTY to the accuracy or usability of the data and accepts no liability for any errors or omissions.”

By accepting this Data Set, the Data User agrees to abide by the terms of this agreement. The Atlas project leader shall have the right to terminate this agreement immediately by written notice upon the Data User's breach of, or non-compliance with, any of its terms. The Data User may be held responsible for any misuse that is caused or encouraged by the Data User's failure to abide by the terms of this agreement.






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