Policy
To ensure the integrity of the A.P.E.S. database, it is essential that all policies regarding the contribution and distribution of ape survey data are completely transparent to all involved parties. The A.P.E.S. Data Access and Release Policy was formulated to regulate all legal and technical details of data contribution and exchange. It consists of four documents which were modeled after the African Elephant Database:
A.P.E.S. Database Access and Release Policy
This document summarizes and defines the general terms and policies of the database. Download PDF
A.P.E.S. Database Deposit Form
This form is to be completed by any party contributing data to the A.P.E.S. database. This form solicits contact information, information about the data set, and specifies any restrictions on access to these data from third parties. Download PDF (English) / Download PDF (French)
A.P.E.S. Database Data Request Document
Any party wishing to access original data sets in the A.P.E.S. database, must complete this form and also submit a formal research proposal. Each request will be considered by the Data Review Working Group of the A.P.E.S. database. Download PDF
A.P.E.S. Database Data Users Agreement
This agreement specifies the terms and stipulations of approved data access, relevant only to cases which have been reviewed by the Data Review Working Group. Download PDF
A.P.E.S. Data Template
In addition, this is the standardized A.P.E.S. data template that is used to store all survey data submitted to the A.P.E.S. Database. We do not expect data owners/contributors to arrange their data in this template before submission because of time limitations. Data owners can submit their data in whatever format they are (e.g., tabular, text, shapefile) and the A.P.E.S. Database Team will arrange them according to the A.P.E.S. Template:
Our hope is that this policy makes the A.P.E.S. project as transparent as possible, thereby encouraging data owners to contribute survey data sets to this database. It is important to emphasize that the data contributor establishes the limits for access to their data set. Some individuals may wish to make data freely available to any request that has been approved by the Data Review Working Group, whereas others may wish to limit data use to the official reports generated by A.P.E.S.