OLAF is based upon the premise that a significant fraction of planetary data is reducable to a few generally characterizable formats. NASA PDS seeks to capture planetary data and the information needed that will allow that data to be usable to the science community for the indefinite future, after submitters may no longer be available to clarify any essential aspects of that data. By imposing reasonable uniformities in the following submission process, OLAF makes it possible for the PDS to acquire as much data as possible from individual researchers to the benefit of all.

The index.tab file

In most cases, in order to sumbit your data you will need to index.tab file, where each line of the index.tab provides information about a single data file you are submitting. For instance if you are submitting 10 spectrum tables, your index file will contain 10 lines (plus a line at the top indicating the start of each column). The format of the index.tab file depends upon the specific kind of data being submitted (each requiring different ancillary information). It can be created with a text editor or you can use the tool provided within OLAF. The tool will create a file which you will download to your computer so that you can include it with your data files prior to upload to OLAF. If you wish, you can use the tool to start the index.tab file for you, then download and edit index.tab to add other entries.

Submissions

Modest sized submissions can be zipped or tarred and uploaded directly to OLAF. For large submissions, information will be collected through OLAF and the data files may be put on CDs or DVDs and delivered to OLAF separately (contact OLAF Help below if you have questions regarding this).

Peer Review

All datasets submitted to the PDS are peer-reviewed, much as would be a science journal article. External reviewers are selected for each dataset to ensure that the submission makes sense, is usable, and is fully documented. Peer review may result in a request for modifications and additional information in the submitted dataset and consititute liens on the dataset that need to be cleared before the dataset can be accepted by the PDS.

Citations

OLAF automatically generates citations for all datasets as well as their individual products. After peer review and lien resolution, this information is transmitted to abstract services such as the ADS, allowing these PDS holdings to be found and accessed by users of those systems.

OLAF Help

View the Olaf Support Contact Information