US AON BENEFIT Tool — Contributor User Agreement & Informed Consent

Summary

🌍 What this is. The BENEFIT Tool collects expert assessments of Arctic observing systems to help decision-makers understand what's working, what's missing, and what matters. Your knowledge helps shape how Arctic observations are funded and managed. (See Section 1)
🙋 Your call. Participation is completely voluntary. You can stop at any time, and you don't need to give a reason. (See Section 4)
📛 Your name will be on it. Right now, all assessments are public and attributed to you by name and institution — not tied to individual ratings, but listed as a contributor to the assessment team. Only share what you're comfortable with. (See Section 5.3)
📂 Open by default. Your assessment data is publicly available under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0), meaning anyone can use or build on it, including for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the source. US AON will not sell your data or use it for commercial purposes. (See Section 6)
↩️ You can withdraw. You can ask us to remove your assessment at any time. We can always take it off our site. For reports and other materials we've produced, we'll do our best within a year or two. For third-party publications or downloads, we can't make guarantees. (See Section 4.2)
⚠️ A few real risks to know about. Public attribution means your name is attached to your assessment. Once published, we can't fully control how others use or interpret it. And results may influence decisions (e.g., about funding or operations) in ways none of us can fully anticipate. We add caveats to all published assessments, but that doesn't eliminate these risks. (See Section 9.1)
🌱 Indigenous and community knowledge. If you're contributing on behalf of a community or sharing community-held knowledge, please reach out to us before you start. We want to get this right together. (See Section 8)
📬 We'll tell you if things change. If we update this agreement in ways that affect your rights or your data, we'll email you at least 30 days before the change takes effect. (See Section 10)

Questions? Contact Sandy Starkweather at sandra.starkweather@colorado.edu.

Document version: 1.0

Effective date: June 24, 2026

Principal Investigator: Sandy Starkweather, CIRES / University of Colorado Boulder

PI Contact: sandra.starkweather@colorado.edu

Institutional affiliation: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder

1. Purpose of the BENEFIT Tool

The US Arctic Observing Network (US AON) BENEFIT Tool is a web-based platform that collects structured expert assessments of Arctic observing systems, data products, and applications. These assessments capture how well observing and data systems perform, how important they are, and how they contribute to societal benefit. The resulting analyses are used to help managers and decision-makers understand capabilities and gaps in the Arctic observing system. Some of the data from this tool could end up in research publications (e.g., peer-reviewed journals). This agreement explains what that means for you as a contributor.

2. Who Is Conducting This Work

This work is led by the US Arctic Observing Network (US AON), with principal oversight by:

Principal Investigator: Sandy Starkweather

Institution: CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder

Email: sandra.starkweather@colorado.edu

The BENEFIT Tool is hosted by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), which implements the BENEFIT Tool design under the guidance of US AON. NSIDC is also affiliated with the University of Colorado Boulder. Funding is provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) through US AON. Neither NOAA nor NSF retains ownership of or rights to contributor data.

3. What You Are Being Asked to Do

As a registered user of the BENEFIT Tool, you may:

Create or contribute to BENEFIT Assessments — structured assessments that evaluate Arctic observing systems, data products, and applications
Provide quantitative ratings (numerical scores) and qualitative descriptions of system capabilities, importance, and societal benefit
Review and validate analyses led by other contributors, in consultation with US AON staff
Be listed as a contributor to published assessments

Assessments are typically developed collaboratively. You may work individually or as part of a group, including in workshop-based or community-based settings. Contribution to any specific assessment is always voluntary — registering an account does not obligate you to complete or contribute to any particular analysis.

4. Voluntary Contribution and Your Right to Withdraw

Contributing to the BENEFIT Tool or any specific assessment is entirely voluntary. You may choose not to contribute, to stop contributing at any time, or to request removal of your contributions. US AON will not impose penalties, loss of benefits, or adverse consequences for choosing not to participate or for withdrawing.

4.1 How to Request Withdrawal

To request removal of your contributions, contact the Principal Investigator at sandra.starkweather@colorado.edu. You do not need to provide a reason.

4.2 Scope and Limitations of Withdrawal

Withdrawal is handled in three tiers, depending on where your data appears:

BENEFIT Tool website: We will remove your assessment from the live site promptly upon request, typically within 30 days.
US AON-produced materials (e.g., technical briefs, reports): We will make reasonable efforts to update or retract materials that cite your assessment within approximately one to two years of your withdrawal request. The complexity of these updates varies by material.
Third-party publications and downloaded copies: We cannot guarantee retrieval of data that has been incorporated into formal third-party publications or downloaded by other users prior to withdrawal. Once data has been publicly disseminated, full retraction may not be technically or practically feasible.

We will always be transparent with you about the status of your withdrawal request and what we are and are not able to accomplish. If you have questions about a specific situation, please contact us.

5. What Data Is Collected and How It Is Used

5.1 Data collected

When you register and use the BENEFIT Tool, the following information is collected:

Account registration information: name, email address, institutional affiliation, and professional role
Assessment data: quantitative ratings, qualitative descriptions, and the links you draw between observing systems, data products, and applications. There is an option to create links without providing specific rating information.
Contributor attribution: your name and affiliation as a contributor to assessments you participate in
Tool interaction data: general usage logs for technical maintenance purposes

5.2 How your data is used

Your contributions are used to:

Build and publish BENEFIT Assessments on the BENEFIT Tool website
Support US AON's mission of improving coordination and management of Arctic observing systems
Contribute to scientific publications, reports, and policy-relevant materials
Improve the BENEFIT Tool's methodology and software

5.3 Public attribution and identity

Attribution of contributions to the BENEFIT tool is public by design.

Assessments are attributed as a whole to the group of contributors that worked on them (e.g., "this assessment was conducted by a team that included X, Y, and Z"), rather than linking individual ratings to individual names. Your name and affiliation will appear as part of this contributor list in published assessments you participate in.

We do not currently offer a "private" or anonymized assessment option. All assessments are published with contributor attribution as described above. We plan to develop a private assessment capability in the future; this agreement will be updated at that time.

6. Data Sharing, Access, and Reuse

US AON is committed to open data as a default. Assessment data, including contributor attribution, is made publicly available unless specific circumstances require otherwise (see Section 8).

Published assessment data is made available in open, non-proprietary formats (e.g., JSON, CSV) and is stored in a PostgreSQL database hosted by NSIDC with regular backups. By contributing to the BENEFIT Tool, you agree that your assessment data and contributor attribution may be freely accessed, used, and cited by others under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This means anyone may share or adapt your assessment data for any purpose, including commercially, as long as they credit the source. The full license text is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Data already released under CC BY 4.0 may continue to be used by others under the terms of that license even if you later withdraw participation.

US AON does not sell contributor data and does not itself share it for commercial purposes.

Long-term archiving. Assessment data may also be archived at the NSF Arctic Data Center (ADC) to ensure long-term preservation. The ADC requires that all deposited data be released under either CC BY 4.0 or the CC-0 Public Domain Dedication. US AON will deposit data under CC BY 4.0. By agreeing to this document, you authorize US AON to deposit your assessment data and contributor attribution at the ADC under these terms.

7. Data Storage and Stewardship

Assessment data is stored in a secure PostgreSQL database hosted at NSIDC and backed up regularly. Source code and documentation for the BENEFIT Tool is maintained on GitHub and archived on Zenodo with a permanent DOI (10.5281/zenodo.8403759).

7.1 Program continuity

US AON intends to maintain the BENEFIT Tool and contributor withdrawal capabilities for as long as the program is staffed and funded. Long-term archiving at the NSF Arctic Data Center is a planned future step that has not yet been completed.

In the event that US AON is discontinued or funding changes significantly, we will make reasonable efforts to notify registered contributors and provide a transition plan for data stewardship before ceasing operations.

7.2 Retention

Data is retained for as long as the BENEFIT Tool is active and for archival purposes thereafter. You may request deletion of your data at any time (see Section 4).

8. Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Community Assessments

US AON recognizes that some contributors may reference knowledge that is community-held, culturally significant, or otherwise subject to Indigenous data sovereignty principles. This section describes how we approach those situations.

8.1 Applicable frameworks

US AON is committed to the following data governance frameworks:

CARE Principles (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) — developed by the Global Indigenous Data Alliance
FAIR Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) — where they do not conflict with CARE
OCAP® (Ownership, Control, Access, Possession) — First Nations Principles of Information Governance

Where these frameworks conflict, CARE principles take precedence over FAIR principles.

8.2 Community and group assessments

The BENEFIT Tool is evolving to better support group and community-based assessments, such as workshops where participants build a shared view of observing system capabilities. We recognize that in these settings, contributors may be providing their best understanding of community perspectives rather than representing only their individual expertise. Contributors are responsible for ensuring they have appropriate authority or permission to share any community-held knowledge they provide.

Even in group assessments, individual attribution is tied to the specific people who contributed, because individual contributors cannot fully represent the perspectives of a diverse community. We acknowledge this limitation openly.

If you are contributing knowledge on behalf of a community or as a community representative, we strongly encourage you to discuss with US AON staff before completing an assessment, so we can work with you on appropriate attribution, consent, and data handling. Contact: sandra.starkweather@colorado.edu

8.3 Sensitive or restricted data

If your assessment involves knowledge that you or your community consider sensitive, confidential, or subject to Indigenous data governance restrictions, please contact us before proceeding. We will work collaboratively to develop an appropriate data management approach, which may include restricted access, modified attribution, or other accommodations.

9. Risks and Benefits

9.1 Potential risks

Risks associated with contributing to the BENEFIT Tool are minimal. The main risks are:

Professional reputational risk. Because all current assessments are publicly attributed (see Section 5.3), you should only contribute assessments you are comfortable having associated with your name and institution.
Risk of misinterpretation or use out of context. Once a BENEFIT Assessment is published, others may draw conclusions from it that were not intended by the contributors — either about the observing systems being assessed or about your individual views. US AON includes contextual language with all published assessments noting that results represent the perspectives of specific contributors at a specific point in time and should not be treated as definitive or comprehensive evaluations. This reduces but does not eliminate the risk that assessments are cited in ways that mischaracterize a contributor's professional positions or misrepresent the state of scientific knowledge.
Risk related to funding and management decisions. BENEFIT Assessments are explicitly designed to inform resource allocation, funding priorities, and management decisions about Arctic observing systems. There is a risk that your assessment — individually or as part of a broader analysis — could influence such decisions in ways you did not anticipate or intend. We cannot predict or control how decision-makers will interpret or apply assessment results.

We do not anticipate physical risks. Other risks are primarily professional and reputational in nature, as described above.

9.2 Potential benefits

Contribution supports:

Improved coordination and management of Arctic observing systems
A publicly accessible record of expert knowledge about the value of Arctic observations
Scientific publications and policy-relevant analyses that support societal benefit in the Arctic
Your own professional recognition as a named contributor to published analyses
Potential positive influence on funding and management decisions for Arctic observing systems — the tool is explicitly designed to make expert knowledge actionable for decision-makers

There is no direct financial compensation for contribution.

10. Updates to This Agreement

US AON may update this agreement from time to time to reflect changes in the tool, our data practices, or applicable regulations. We distinguish between two types of changes:

Material changes: Changes that affect your rights, the use of your data, or attribution practices. We will notify all registered contributors by email at least 30 days before a material change takes effect.
Non-material changes: Typographical corrections, clarifications, or formatting changes that do not affect substance. These take effect immediately and are noted in the document version history.

If you continue to use the BENEFIT Tool after a material change notification period has elapsed, your continued use constitutes acceptance of the updated agreement. If you do not accept the updated terms, you may withdraw your participation at any time (see Section 4).

The current version number and effective date are shown at the top of this document and in your account settings. Previous versions are available upon request.

11. Your Rights as a Contributor

As a contributor to the BENEFIT Tool, you have the following rights:

The right to be informed about the nature and purpose of this work before participating
The right to participate voluntarily and to withdraw at any time without penalty
The right to ask questions about this work at any time
The right to have your data handled in accordance with this agreement

12. Contact Information

For questions about this agreement, your contributions, or your data:

Principal Investigator: Sandy Starkweather

Institution: CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder

Email: sandra.starkweather@colorado.edu

Project website: https://www.usaon.org/apps/benefit-tool/

Statement of Informed Consent

By clicking "I agree", I confirm that:

I have read and understood this Contributor User Agreement.
I am 18 years of age or older.
I voluntarily agree to contribute and understand I may withdraw at any time.
I understand that my assessments will be publicly attributed to me by name and institution.
I understand the current limitations on data withdrawal described in Section 4.2.
I understand that this agreement may be updated, and I will be notified of material changes.

Appendix A: Summary of Key Terms

Term	Definition
BENEFIT Assessment	A structured assessment created using the BENEFIT Tool that evaluates Arctic observing systems, data products, and applications for their capabilities, importance, and societal benefit.
Contributor attribution	The identification of contributors to a published assessment by name and institutional affiliation.
CARE Principles	Data governance framework emphasizing Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics — developed for and by Indigenous data communities.
FAIR Principles	Data management framework emphasizing Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable data.
OCAP®	First Nations Principles of Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession, governing Indigenous research data.
Material change	An update to this agreement that affects contribution rights, data use, or attribution. Requires 30 days' notice by email.
Withdrawal	A contributor's request to end participation and remove their data, subject to the three-tier limitations described in Section 4.2.

Appendix B: Version History

Version	Date	Summary of changes
1.0	June 24, 2026	Initial release