ESA Data Registry

Welcome to the ESA Data Registry. This is a publicly accessible registry describing scientific data sets on ecology and the environment. The data sets registered here are associated with articles published in the journals of the Ecological Society of America. They are registered here in order to facilitate communication and data sharing by scientists. See individual registry entries for citation information as well as usage rights.

Registry Tools

Search only within the ESA Data Registry
Search entire Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity

This tool allows you to search the registry for data sets of interest. When you type text in the box and click on the "Search" button, the search will only be conducted within the title, author, abstract, and keyword fields. Checking the "Search All Fields" box will search on these and all other existing fields (this search will take more time). Checking the "Search Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity" box will allow you to search the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB) in addition to the ESA Data Registry. The KNB is an international data repository dedicated to facilitating ecological and environmental research. Click here for more information on the KNB.

You can use the '%' character as a wildcard in your searches (e.g., '%biodiversity%' would locate any phrase with the word biodiversity embedded within it).

Browse data sets

Browse all existing data sets by title. This operation can be slow as the number of entries in the registry grows.

The ESA Data Registry form is for registering data sets associated with articles published in the journals of the Ecological Society of America. Other Ecological data sets can be registered with the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB).

Steps for registering an ESA data set

Step 1: Create an Account
Create an account by registering with the KNB. Many scientists will already have accounts in the KNB, especially those from institutions like NCEAS and LTER. If you already have an account please use that existing account rather than creating a new one.

Step 2: Login
Login to the ESA Registry website with the account you created. Fill out the ESA Data Registry Form. A page titled "Success" will appear when the form has been successfully submitted.

Step 3: Register Data
Fill out the ESA Data Registry Form. A page titled "Success" will appear when the form has been successfully submitted.

Step 4: Look for Feedback
After you submit, watch for e-mail sent by the ESA moderator regarding whether your data set has been accepted

Create a new account

The account management tools are used to create and manage registry accounts. Accounts are free, and are used to identify contributors so that they can maintain their entries in the future.

About the Registry

This project is a cooperative effort of the Ecological Society of America and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). The Data Registry is based on software developed by the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB), and houses metadata that are compliant with Ecological Metadata Language (EML). Consequently, data found in this registry also are accessible from the larger collection of data found in the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB).