Archive of ecological observation and research data is increasingly becoming expected by funders and journals, with the premise that research will be more transparent, data can be reused in synthesis, or simply to reduce duplication of effort.  Even for data with detailed metadata, the assumption that datasets can be easily incorporated into analyses has rarely proven true. Reuse of archived data is fraught with obstacles, requiring time to discover, explore, understand methods and local jargon, and evaluate a data set’s fitness for a particular use.

This session will provide wide-ranging perspectives on assembling data from disparate sources. It brings together researchers and data scientists who have assembled data for synthesis, organized meta-analysis projects, or harmonized data for targeted databases, web applications or displays.  We know from experience that primary research data sets are not always easily combined, and that considerable preparation is required. This group will share that experience and provide their insights on strategies, formats or procedures - both effective and failed - for dealing with the integration of complex data. The speakers and their projects have diverse synthesis goals, and represent both large organizations (LTER, AmeriFlux, NEON, NCEAS), and focused projects in soil and water biochemistry, biodiversity and community ecology. They will describe their data reuse experiences from a variety of aspects - from initial discovery to the complex steps required to ascertain that a dataset is indeed appropriate for a particular question or use.