Reports
When a German research vessel is used for a cruise, the chief scientist is required to submit a report. The graphic below illustrates the report workflow.
The graphic illustrates the report workflow
Cruise Reports
No later than two months after completion of the cruise, the GPF Office expects to receive the report for cruises conducted on ALKOR, ELISABETH MANN BORGESE, HEINCKE, METEOR, MARIA S. MERIAN and SONNE. The cruise report serves as a report to the funding bodies and should document the work carried out on board as well as the data and samples obtained. Cruise reports are not intended to document the scientific analysis of the data.
The guidelines for preparing a cruise report and the relevant template can be found here:
Once the cruise reports have been received by the GPF Office, they are reviewed for formal compliance in line with the Guidelines for Authors. If necessary, authors are asked to revise the report and return it to the GPF Office. Once the cruise report meets the required criteria, the GPF Office transmits it to PANGAEA and, in the case of ALKOR reports, additionally to OceanRep. The report is then published with a DOI assigned by the German National Library of Science and Technology in Hannover ((externer Link)).
In the case of cruises conducted with POLARSTERN, reports are published here: (externer Link). Please observe the requirements specified by AWI in this connection.
Approximately two years after completion of the cruise, the chief scientist receives a request from the GPF Office to provide evidence of the scientific exploitation of the cruise. This must be done by means of a presentation at the (interner Link), an event that is held every two years.
Scientific Reports
There was previously requirement to submit separate scientific reports, but this was dropped in 2022. Scientific reports submitted up to 2022 are also published on (externer Link).
Data
The (externer Link) is currently being developed and continuously expanded through the German Marine Research Alliance (DAM) and the Helmholtz Association’s BMFTR initiative Information Infrastructure for Marine and Integrated Earth System Science. With regard to the flow of information and data from underway data recording, please refer to the process description published on (externer Link) (in German only). Direct access to cruises and to the data obtained using the German research vessels is available via (externer Link).