Mass Spectrometry Center

Data Sharing

Western Illinois Mass Spec Center utilizes Google Drive which comes with its email and calendar platform for data sharing. The data files are first saved into the hard drive of the instrumental controlling computer when acquired, which are archived into folders and subfolders in the following sequence: the faculty’s name, the project name, and then the date using a format of YYMMDD (YearYearMonthMonthDayDay). Inside each daily folder, each data file is named using a format starting with YYMMDD, followed by the abbreviation of the faculty’s name, the project name, and then the sample name, with underscores to separate them.  The data files are backed up daily into the Google Drive in the cloud at midnight. The Google Drive are shared with all the users who have received appropriate training and have an account with the center. However, the users are only granted the privilege to view their own data files through the Google Drive in the cloud. In order for the users to process their data files, they must download them into a local computer. 

After our results are published, we can share our raw chromatograms and mass spectra with other Agilent’s mass spectrometric users upon request, which is also through Google Drive with the same procedure as described above.