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Pesticide Registration

E-Submission for Terrestrial and Aquatic Plant Studies

Environmental Fate and Effects Studies

Current as of February 2001

The following general guidance applies to both terrestrial and aquatic plant studies:

  • Data should be provided in files separate from other material such as reviews.
  • Data files should have a special file extension not used for other kinds of files, probably ".dat" (e.g., "ONION.DAT").
  • Missing measurements should be indicated by a dot (".") as in the example below. A missing value code should be required when there are multiple endpoints in the same file.
  • Individual numbers or values on a line are separated by one or more spaces.
  • Lines or rows of data are separated by a hard return
  • Data files should be ASCII.
  • Character data such as variable names or treatment group names should consist of strings of length not more than 8 characters.
  • Ratio endpoints such as emergence (the fraction of seeds that emerge) should be represented as decimal numbers rather than as percentages.

Example of suggested file format

Following is how a file might look for a study with two treatment levels and four measurement endpoints:

BLECKOFOS / ONION / EMERGENCE
10 23

  Height Weight Emergnce Phytotox
C 2.5 3.0 1.00 0.00
C 1.9 2.8 1.00 0.00
1 1.8 2.2 0.88 0.00
1 1.9 2.5 0.79 0.00
2 . . 0.00 .
2 1.0 1.9 0.22 1.00

An explanation of each line follows:

Line 1: Title line
Line 2: Dose values applied to treated groups
Line 3: Names of measurement endpoints (#8 characters per name)
Lines 4 ff: data for individual plots, data columns as follows:

Column 1: Treatment group
Columns 2-5: Values of measurement endpoints. The endpoints are identified on Line 3.
(The 3rd name on Line 3 is the name of the 3rd endpoint from left to right, and so on.)

For further information, please contact Elizabeth Donovan (donovan.elizabeth@epa.gov), 703-347-0227 or Van Vogel (vogel.van@epa.gov), 703-347-0541.