Documentation allows your data to be used properly by other people. Remember, many people over the next 20 years may be using your data, and not all of them are in your field. If you are not clear on how to fill out some section, check one of the sample documents listed below to see how others have done it.
All documents have the same structure to ease working with several diverse data sets.
This standard structure must encompass data types as diverse as soil-type classifications and Landsat images, and some sections will not apply to your data set. Please try to fill in all sections, so that future users know that certain information does not exist, and they do not have to continue looking through the document for it. This means that you should include basic descriptions of the instruments, your collection methods, your calibration methods, and especially the problems you encountered that may affect the data. It is important for you to follow the guidelines listed below. Editing and processing all of these documents is a enourmous undertaking, and if you follow these simple rules, it would help us tremendously.