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Definitions

Database = a collection of data sets containing related information.

Data Publication = electronic research data, metadata, and other documentation the author believes would facilitate the understanding of the study.

Data Set = a collection of data available as a single file, usually presented in tabular form where each column represents a particular variable.

Metadata = data documentation such as what data were collected, why were the data collected, who collected the data, how was the data collected, who distributes the data, etc. The metadata standard used in this archive is the Federal Geographic Data Committee: Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC CSDGM) and the FGDC Biological Data Profile (BDP). For more information about metadata or this standard go to: www.fs.usda.gov/rds/archive/metadata/.


Data Availability

Open Access data are available to any user after acknowledgement of the U.S. Forest Service Research and Development Data Use Agreement, which outlines conditions of use such as redistribution, citation, notification, and distribution liability. This agreement is provided to the user when the Query/Download button for a data set is selected. Once the user selects the 'Agree' button to acknowledge the data use agreement, all of the data sets for that particular database will be available to the user.


Toolbar

'Find results by query id' link at the top right-hand side of each page allows a user to look up a specific known query id for a previously-run query.

Breadcrumbs at the top left-hand side of the page (not available on EFR home page) show and allow navigation through the site.

Toolbar at the bottom of each page contains the following links:


Page Navigation

Webpage descriptions, in the order most likely accessed:

  1. EFR page contains:
    • Description of the Experimental Forest or Range
    • Map of the Experimental Forest or Range
    • Database link(s), which provides access to Database page, located both in the toolbar at the top of the page and in the description text
       
  2. Database page contains:
    • List of data sets available for the database selected on EFR page
    • Metadata button for each available data set
      • Click button to view metadata (in HTML format)
      • Right click button to save metadata or open metadata in a new window
    • Query/download button for each available data set
      • Click button to access data set, which provides access to Query page
  3. Query page contains:
    • List of search criteria available to query data
      • Output variables, which is selection of variables of interest
      • Optional variables
      • Filter criteria, which allows for limiting the data selected
      • Summary data, which is offered only if at least one of the variables can be summarized
    • Continue button which begins the query and takes user to Results page
    • Reset Form button which resets the criteria currently selected
    • If the url includes the optional second 'query id' parameter, the form will default to the selections made for that query (for some older queries, this feature is not available)
  4. Results page contains:
    • Results tab shows the data resulting from the search criteria provided
      • 'Show' links above the table allow for the display of a different number of rows at a time
      • Page links at the bottom allow a user to navigate to different pages of data
    • Download tab contains the following options:
      • Download all records just queried (multiple formats may be available), as a ZIP file
      • Download entire data publication (entire data set, metadata, and any other supplemental information that may be available), as a ZIP file
      • Download metadata