IDALS Public & Password-Protected Databases:
Terms & Conditions of Use


The creators of the IDALS database recognize that electronic access to data products created as a result of NASA sponsored research programs is crucial for the exchange of scientific information between researchers and will ultimately lead to maximum return on NASA's research intellectual investments. To that end, we provide our published spectral data in a publicly available and downloadable format, and we supply all users with inventory lists of our laboratory spectral holdings. Use of spectral data obtained from the public IDALS database website must be properly cited (see instructions on How to Cite) but is otherwise unrestricted.

For the roughly 75% of our data products which are currently unpublished and pending analysis, we have also created an IDALS password-protected database of downloadable files. Access to the IDALS password-protected database is currently restricted to co-investigators on our laboratory astrophysics grants. We are willing to open this password-protected database to a limited number of new collaborators who

  • submit an e-mail request to our webmaster, providing us with their contact information and institutional affiliations

  • agree not to share any password information we provide with other parties (i.e., to abide by a "single user" agreement)

  • agree not to copy some or all archived IDALS password-protected spectral and optical constant data products with intent to distribute to other parties

  • include one or more of us (A. Hofmeister, K. Pitman, A. Speck) as co-authors on publications and conference abstracts resulting from use of IDALS password protected data products. The co-author requirement on works resulting from use of these laboratory spectra cannot be waived, as per intellectual property policies for our respective universities.

    We welcome new collaborations with scientists from multiple disciplines, and will support any analyses made through these collaborations with as much detail about the laboratory measurements and/or astrophysical implications as possible. By issuing this statement, you the user are made aware that with regard to our unpublished data, we intend to protect our co-investigators from intellectual property theft by seeking legal counsel and that we share information with scientists who also protect competitively selected original ideas and agree to fair usage of any information or data products obtained from our sites.