International Polar Year Publications Database

Reporting Your Publications

The International Polar Year Publications Database (IPYPD) is the program of the IPY Data and Information Service that prepares and disseminates metadata (references, abstracts and indexing terms) describing publications that have resulted from, or that are about, the International Polar Year 2007-2008 and the three previous IPYs. More information about the IPYPD project is available on the About page.

The IPY Data Policy and the IPY Scholarly Publications Policy require that all IPY publications be reported to the IPYPD. Reporting a publication to the IPYPD ensures that it is cited in the IPYPD database and, depending on the publication's subject and geographic scope, in the Bibliography on Cold Regions Science and Technology, the Antarctic Bibliography, the SPRILIB databases and the ASTIS databases.

The Short Version

The sections below describe in detail how to report your IPY publications, but here is all that you really need to know:

Please e-mail a list of references to:

If you are not sure to which organization your references should be e-mailed, make a guess and we will ensure that they get to the right organization. If you are not sure whether the IPYPD includes a certain type of publication, send a reference and let us decide. If you are not sure whether you or your colleagues have already reported a publication, report it anyway.

To Whom Do You Report IPY Publications?

IPY publications should be reported to one or more of three organizations, as determined by the following rules:

1. If the work that resulted in the publication was part of the Canadian IPY Program (regardless of the geographic region that was investigated), or if the publication is primarily about northern Canada or the adjacent waters (regardless of whether the work was part of the Canadian IPY Program), please report the publication to:

astis@ucalgary.ca

ASTIS
Arctic Institute of North America
University of Calgary
Calgary, AB, Canada
T2N 1N4

2. If the publication is primarily about the Antarctic or is primarily about non-living things (i.e. the earth sciences), report the publication to:

coldregions@agiweb.org

Cold Regions Bibliography Project
American Geological Institute
4220 King Street
Alexandria, VA, USA
22303-1502

3. If the publication is primarily about living things (i.e., the biological, medical, social or human sciences), or if it is about the IPY in general (e.g., publications about the organization and operation of the entire IPY; education, outreach and communication publications that discuss the entire IPY rather than focusing on a particular subject or geographic region), report it to:

librarian@spri.cam.ac.uk

Librarian
Scott Polar Research Institute
Lensfield Road
Cambridge, United Kingdom
CB2 1ER

The above rules require that some publications should be reported to more than one of the above organizations. For example, publications about Antarctic biology should be reported to both the Cold Regions Bibliography Project and the Scott Polar Research Institute Library.

It is not a problem if more than one member of a research team reports the same publication, so please report publications if you have any doubt that other members of your team have reported them.

When Reporting IPY Publications What Information Do You Send?

It is necessary for the organizations that are creating the IPYPD to see your IPY publications in order to prepare accurate descriptions of them. It therefore doesn't matter what information you send, or what format it is in, as long as it will allow us to identify and obtain your publications. We will use whatever form of information is easiest for you.

  • If you already have a list of references, please e-mail it. Please include URLs for any online grey literature that is in your list, and for other literature in your list that is available on your website or in an open archive.

  • If you don't have a list of references, please e-mail the DOIs, URLs or PDF files of your publications.

  • For digital publications that are not available online and are too large to e-mail, please mail CDs, DVDs, etc.

  • For publications that are not available in digital form, please mail paper versions.

What Publications Does the IPYPD Describe?

IPY publications are publications that result from, or that are about, the research, education, outreach or communication activities of the International Polar Year 2007-2008 or the three previous IPYs.

The IPYPD describes the following types of IPY publications:

  • journal papers
  • books
  • reports
  • individually-authored chapters within books and reports
  • theses
  • conference presentations if published in full
  • periodicals dedicated to IPY activities (e.g., IPY newsletters)
  • magazine, newsletter or newspaper articles that occupy one full page or more and that have authors
  • printed maps
  • audio or video programs distributed on magnetic tape, CD, DVD or from a website

To be described in the IPYPD a publication must be permanently available and must be obtainable by anyone.

The IPYPD does not describe:

  • conference presentations published as abstracts or posters (although the separate Canadian IPYPD does describe published conference abstracts)
  • magazine, newsletter or newspaper articles that are smaller than one full page or that do not have authors
  • audio or video programs distributed only by broadcast
  • datasets
  • websites

Publications that are distributed in only electronic form (e.g., by being posted on websites) are described by the IPYPD, as long as they fall into one of the categories listed above, are in final form and will be permanently available. Datasets are not described by the IPYPD, but are described by other programs of the IPY Data and Information Service.