Results or Background (including thesis dissertations), and the use of names,
logos and trademarks will be regulated by the MERCES Consortium Agreement,
which will assure the suitable results protection measures and legitimate
interests of all parties involved in the project.

To ensure the widest access possible to science produced by MERCES, all
datasets and scientific publications will be deposited in the dedicated Zenodo
community, in the account already created for MERCES project (i.e., “MERCES
project” community). Zenodo has been selected as repository platform since it
is free and it allows Horizon 2020 grant support since the data are
automatically exported to OpenAIRE. Furthermore, it allows to have Digital
Object Identifier (DOI, both for datasets and scientific publications), as
well as restricted usage in case of need for embargo periods (both for
datasets and scientific publications).

All partners will strive to publish articles in open access. This will enhance
the transparency of MERCES research results, ensuring at the same time
immediate access to data and results by policy and/or business, by
stakeholders, end-users and scientists. It is also envisaged that the partners
will be able to produce approximately 100 contributions to international
scientific symposia and business conferences. Moreover, it has been envisaged
that MERCES will coordinate at least 3 special sessions organized in the
framework of international symposia.

**3\. General characteristics and typology of datasets**

MERCES will collect and collate data spanning from scientific and
environmental to socio-economic contexts, mainly in numerical and textual
formats. All different data sets will be allocated in the internal (web site
private area) and public (Zenodo) repositories in order to be:

  1. discoverable (e.g. assigning each data set to a Digital Object Identifier, DOI); 

  

  2. accessible (e.g., providing each data set with clear information about their scope, licences, rule for commercial exploitation and re-usage); 

  

  3. measurable and intelligible (ready for scientific scrutiny and peer review); 

  

  4. useable beyond their original purpose (e.g. ensuring data preservation during the project’s after life); 

  

  5. interoperable to specific quality standards (e.g. adhering to standards for data annotation and exchange, compliant with multiple software applications, and allowing recombination with different datasets from different sources). 

  

  

#  3.1 Datasets from literature

Datasets created from literature review (e.g. metadata on existing habitats,
census of impacted deep sea ecosystems), as datasets foreseen in WP1, will be
deposited on Zenodo, as well as made available in open international portals,
under the responsibility of WP1 leaders (HCMR and NUIG). Appropriate metadata
created for each dataset will be based on the Infrastructure for Spatial
Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) specifications (listed at
_http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/_ , _http://inspire-geoportal.ec.europa.eu/_
) and will be compatible with EMODNET/EuSeaMap/MARATLAS portals requirements.
Where appropriate the integration of mapping exercises and knowledge related
to habitats and ecosystem services changes will be based on the MAES process
(Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services,
_http://biodiversity.europa.eu/maes_ of the BISE: Biodiversity Information
System for Europe). MERCES will interact with MAES for typology,
standardization, classification and visualization.

#  3.2 Datasets on environmental-, biological/communities-, ecosystem
services-, legal and policy-, socio-economic- and business-related data

Datasets created in all WP1-8 will be deposited in Zenodo, in accessible
formats (e.g., excel, access, etc.) depending on the typology of the data and
the partner responsible for each dataset. Once in Zenodo, each dataset will
include all raw data as well as all the info related to the data (e.g., area,
environment, ecosystem typology, in which the data have been collected).
Moreover, the datasets will be accompanied by the name of the data’s owner, a
brief description and a DOI. In the cases in which a period of embargo will be
necessary, the datasets will be temporary protected by a password. Once the
embargo will finish, the datasets will be immediately made available. This
kind of datasets will be made available for internal usage among MERCES
partners, by depositing them also on the restricted area of MERCES web site,
with the associated link to Zenodo repository. This will enhance the
transparency of MERCES research results, ensuring at the same time immediate
access to data and results by policy and/or business, by stakeholders, end-
users and scientists.

#  3.3 Scientific publications

MERCES foresees the publication of top-level and specialized papers in
excellent quality journals (e.g. Restoration Ecology, Ecological Engineering)
highlighting the outputs of the project. All partners will strive to publish
articles in open access (“gold open access”). To ensure the widest access
possible to the science produced by MERCES, all scientific publications will
be deposited in the dedicated Zenodo community.

All the papers, including the related datasets and associated metadata, will
be deposited into a research repository (i.e., Zenodo) and where possible, the
Creative Commons Licence (CC-BY or CC0 tool) will be attached to the papers.
In the cases in which a period of embargo will be necessary, the papers and
datasets will be temporary protected by a password. Once the embargo will
finish, the papers will be immediately made available. This kind of datasets
will be made available for internal usage among MERCES partners, by depositing
them also on the restricted area of MERCES web site, with the associated link
to Zenodo repository.

In those cases in which the scientific papers do not have the full open access
(“gold open access”) to the version of the paper edited by the Publisher,
several options can be considered. Following the Publishers’ indications, the
papers could be made available under the “green open access” (as example see
_https://www.elsevier.com/about/open-science/open-access_ ), or by the self-
archiving (publishing online the pdf version of the post-print of the article,
in which will be added all the information requested by the specific
Publisher, as example see
_http://olabout.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-406071.html_ ), or by the
personal web page of the main author. In each case, the options made by the
Publisher will be followed. At the same time the paper will be added in the
MERCES community in Zenodo, following one of the abovementioned options or a
combination of them. Once on Zenodo, the paper will be accompanied by all the
information requested by the Horizon2020 funding program, a Digital Object
Identifier (DOI), the all related metadata, and by the link to the Journal web
page or to the personal web page of the main author. The pdf file upload on
Zenodo will be available or protected by a password, depending on the options
given by the Publisher. In the case by which the Publisher will not allow to
make available the pdf file, the link to the personal web page of the main
author will be added, where the pdf file (post-print version, according to the
Publisher option) will be uploaded. In the case by which the main author does
not have a personal web page, it will be created on the MERCES web site.

In the MERCES web site will be also created a dedicated page, with the entire
list of scientific publications, with the DOI and the direct links to Zenodo
products.

#  Data sharing

All the datasets and publications will be deposited in the MERCES community on
Zenodo, in this way all products will be immediately identified as MERCES
outputs. The use of citable and permanent DOIs for all datasets and scientific
publications archived in Zenodo ensures the long term availability of MERCES
data. If necessary, the access to datasets and the scientific publications
will be protected by a password during an embargo period. Short embargo
periods for datasets or scientific publications could be required by the
editorial policies of scientific journals. Once the embargo will finish, the
open access will be immediately ensured. For each product, a brief description
and a DOI will be provided, in order to make each dataset and publication
identifiable and univocally citable.

For the internal (among partners) and external (stakeholders, general public)
usage and sharing of datasets, specific sections for the allocation of
datasets in the MERCES website have been created. In particular, in the
restricted area there will be the datasets files as well as their link to
Zenodo repository, whereas in the public area of the web site, there will be
the links to Zenodo. For each dataset, also a brief description of the data
and the DOI will be provided.

#  Archiving and preservation (including storage and backup)

Long-term archiving (more than 5 years) and a backup of these datasets will be
guaranteed by the institutes responsible for the Data Management Plan
(ECOREACH and UNIVPM). Each dataset will be identified by its own DOI.