In order for your data to be useful, users need to know what it means. At a minimum, you should provide documentation about the schema for any files that users can download, or that are presented directly on a website. Additional useful documentation can include:

  • Explanations and references for the underlying mathematics so that users have the context for understanding your data.

  • Tutorials for how to use the site if there are any advanced features

  • A mechanism for contacting the database’s authors (commonly an email address, google group or form)

  • A description of how to cite your database in an academic publication. Eventually, you may want to also list the publications that cite your database.

  • Acknowledments of organizations and grants that have supported the development of the database.

  • Links to the source code that serves the website and source code used to compute the data.

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