Why contribute?

By contributing to SeedArc you will:

• Preserve your data in a curated international archive
  
• Increase the visibility and reuse of your work
  
• Join international research collaborations
  
• Be invited to participate as co-author in SeedArc research projects
  
• Help close critical geographic and taxonomic gaps in seed ecology

SeedArc explicitly recognizes data generation as a scientific contribution.

What data can be contributed?

We welcome primary seed germination data from any region of the world, any taxonomic group, and any experimental design.

We primarily focus on data from wild populations of native species. Data from naturalized populations of non-native species (e.g. invasive species) may also be included, provided that their non-native status is clearly indicated. Data from crops and other domesticated plants should be avoided.

We are primarily seeking laboratory germination data, including:

• Germination counts or proportions over time
  
• Experimental treatments (e.g. temperature, light, moisture, stratification)
  
• Metadata on seed origin (location, collection date, population)
  
• Information on experimental design and protocols

Datasets may include one species or many, and can come from published or unpublished studies.

Small datasets are welcome.

If you are unsure whether your data are suitable, please contact us — we are happy to advise.

How to submit your data

Submitting data to SeedArc is straightforward:

1. Contact the SeedArc coordination team (seedarcDB@gmail.com) to express your interest
   
2. We will provide a data template and guidance for formatting your dataset
   
3. Submit your dataset together with basic metadata
   
4. Your data will be curated and integrated into the SeedArc archive

Once your data are incorporated, you will be informed about relevant research projects and collaboration opportunities.

Lead or join a SeedArc project

Contributors are encouraged to propose research ideas and lead SeedArc projects.

Projects may address ecological, evolutionary, or applied questions related to seed germination. The coordination team supports project development, data access, and collaborative workflows.

If you have an idea, we would love to hear from you (seedarcDB@gmail.com).

Data ownership and collaboration (short version)

• Contributors retain ownership of their primary data
  
• Data are accessed through SeedArc research projects
  
• Contributors are invited to participate as collaborators and co-authors
  
• Derived datasets from SeedArc projects are published open access
  
• All projects follow transparent authorship and data-use guidelines

SeedArc operates as a collaborative research platform rather than a passive repository.

SeedArc data management rules (official)

SeedArc operates under a transparent data governance framework designed to promote collaboration, recognition of data contributors, and open science.

The rules below define how data are contributed, curated, accessed, and published within SeedArc. They ensure that contributors retain ownership of their primary data while enabling collaborative research and fair co-authorship.

Version 1.2 of the SeedArc management rules was approved by the SeedArc coordination team in March 2023.

1. Objectives. SeedArc is a research initiative for establishing and analyzing a global repository of primary data from seed germination experiments. This document describes the rules adopted for the coordination, management and final use of the data contained in the database.

2. Coordination team. SeedArc is coordinated by an international team of seed scientists. The initial members of the coordination team are those who started the initiative, voted for these rules and co-author this publication (https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19143). New coordination team members are welcome and can be accepted by election with a simple majority of votes within the coordination team. The main tasks of the coordination team are (1) to establish a coordinated global network of seed scientists interested in data-driven seed ecological research; (2) to maintain and manage the database according to the present rules; and (3) to promote the development of the database through specific projects and third-party funding.

3. Data contributors. Data contributors can be individual researchers, working groups or institutions who are willing to join the database by contributing experimental seed germination data. Each data contributor should be represented by one contact person (but naming a deputy is encouraged) with authoritative decision capabilities and responsibility for the data provided. Data contributors must be accepted by the coordination team according to the requirements of data submission content.

4. Terms of data ownership, data use and co-authorship. The data contributed to SeedArc remains the property of the data contributors and can be withdrawn by them at any time upon their request. The use of the data contained in the database will be organized into projects. Project proposals can be submitted by data contributors or members of the coordination team at any time. Researchers not involved in SeedArc can submit project proposals if they are supported by at least one data contributor or a member of the coordination team. In all cases, the coordination team will approve or decline project proposals by a simple majority. Any project proposal is expected to be accepted if (a) it declares the willingness to follow the (last version of) data management rules, and (b) it does not overlap scientifically with another project previously submitted. Approved projects will be led by one project leader among the applicants of the proposal. Project leaders are obliged to offer co-authorship to all data contributors whose data are finally used in the project. Project proposals should clearly indicate how co-authorship invitations will be managed. The coordination team may counter-propose co-authorship of researchers involved in data management as a pre-condition for project approvals. SeedArc is not responsible for decisions on co-authorship on specific projects, so the project leader should negotiate final arrangements about the inclusion of one or more co-authors from a single data contribution. Project leaders may set up minimum thresholds of data contribution for authorship offers. Following ethical rules of scientific publishing, all co-authors of SeedArc papers must contribute intellectually and agree to the final work. All SeedArc projects are obliged to produce open-science research, including open-access publication of analyzed datasets, for which an explicit consent of data contributors is mandatory.

5. Validity of these rules. All data contributed to SeedArc will be managed under these rules. Any change of the rules will need the approval of data contributors to be effective and make their data available for SeedArc projects. Any data withdrawn from the database will be deleted and therefore not subjected to these rules.