BNL-108412-2015-JA THE ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH DATA RELEASES OF THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY: FINAL DATA FROM SDSS-III Shadab Alam1, Franco D. Albareti2, Carlos Allende Prieto3,4, F. Anders5, Scott F. Anderson6, Timothy Anderton7, Brett H. Andrews8,9, Eric Armengaud10, Eric´ Aubourg11, Stephen Bailey12, Sarbani Basu13, Julian E. Bautista11, Rachael L. Beaton14,15, Timothy C. Beers16, Chad F. Bender17,18 Andreas A. Berlind19, Florian Beutler12, Vaishali Bhardwaj6,12, Jonathan C. Bird19, Dmitry Bizyaev20,21,22, Cullen H. Blake23, Michael R. Blanton24, Michael Blomqvist25, John J. Bochanski6,26, Adam S. Bolton7, Jo Bovy27,28, A. Shelden Bradley20, W. N. Brandt17,29,30, D. E. Brauer5, J. Brinkmann20, Peter J. Brown31, Joel R. Brownstein7, Angela Burden32, Etienne Burtin10, Nicolas´ G. Busca33,34,11, Zheng Cai35, Diego Capozzi32, Aurelio Carnero Rosell33,34, Michael A. Carr36, Ricardo Carrera3,4, K. C. Chambers37, William James Chaplin38,39, Yen-Chi Chen40, Cristina Chiappini5,34, S. Drew Chojnowski21, Chia-Hsun Chuang2, Nicolas Clerc41, Johan Comparat2, Kevin Covey42,43, Rupert A.C. Croft1, Antonio J. Cuesta44,45, Katia Cunha33,35, Luiz N. da Costa33,34, Nicola Da Rio46, James R. A. Davenport6, Kyle S. Dawson7, Nathan De Lee47, Timothee´ Delubac48, Rohit Deshpande17,18, Saurav Dhital49, Let´ıcia Dutra-Ferreira50,34,51, Tom Dwelly41, Anne Ealet52, Garrett L. Ebelke14, Edward M. Edmondson32, Daniel J. Eisenstein53, Tristan Ellsworth7, Yvonne Elsworth38,39, Courtney R. Epstein8, Michael Eracleous17,29,54,6, Stephanie Escoffier52, Massimiliano Esposito3,4, Michael L. Evans6, Xiaohui Fan35, Emma Fernandez-Alvar´ 3,4, Diane Feuillet21, Nurten Filiz Ak17,29,55, Hayley Finley56, Alexis Finoguenov57, Kevin Flaherty58, Scott W. Fleming59,60, Andreu Font-Ribera12, Jonathan Foster45, Peter M. Frinchaboy61, J. G. Galbraith-Frew7, Rafael A. Garc´ıa62, D. A. Garc´ıa-Hernandez´ 3,4, Ana E. Garc´ıa Perez´ 14,3,4, Patrick Gaulme20, Jian Ge46, R. Genova-Santos´ 3,4, A. Georgakakis41, Luan Ghezzi33,53, Bruce A. Gillespie63, Leo´ Girardi64,34, Daniel Goddard32, Satya Gontcho A Gontcho44, Jonay I. Gonzalez´ Hernandez´ 3,4, Eva K. Grebel65, Paul J. Green53, Jan Niklas Grieb41, Nolan Grieves46, James E. Gunn36, Hong Guo7, Paul Harding66, Sten Hasselquist21, Suzanne L. Hawley6, Michael Hayden21, Fred R. Hearty17, Saskia Hekker67,39, Shirley Ho1, David W. Hogg24, Kelly Holley-Bockelmann19, Jon A. Holtzman21, Klaus Honscheid68,69, Daniel Huber70,71,39, Joseph Huehnerhoff20, Inese I. Ivans7, Linhua Jiang72, Jennifer A. Johnson8,69, Karen Kinemuchi20,21, David Kirkby25, Francisco Kitaura5, Mark A. Klaene20, Gillian R. Knapp36, Jean-Paul Kneib48,73, Xavier P. Koenig13, Charles R. Lam14 Ting-Wen Lan63, Dustin Lang1, Pierre Laurent10, Jean-Marc Le Goff10, Alexie Leauthaud74, Khee-Gan Lee75, Young Sun Lee76, Timothy C. Licquia9, Jian Liu46, Daniel C. Long20,21, Mart´ın Lopez-Corredoira´ 3,4, Diego Lorenzo-Oliveira50,34, Sara Lucatello64, Britt Lundgren77, Robert H. Lupton36, Claude E. Mack III19,5, Suvrath Mahadevan17,18, Marcio A. G. Maia33,34, Steven R. Majewski14, Elena Malanushenko20,21, Viktor Malanushenko20,21, A. Manchado3,4, Marc Manera32,78, Qingqing Mao19, Claudia Maraston32, Robert C. Marchwinski17,18, Daniel Margala25, Sarah L. Martell79, Marie Martig75, Karen L. Masters32, Savita Mathur80, Cameron K. McBride53, Peregrine M. McGehee81, Ian D. McGreer35, Richard G. McMahon82,83, Brice Menard´ 63,74,84, Marie-Luise Menzel41, Andrea Merloni41, Szabolcs Mesz´ aros´ 85, Adam A. Miller86,87,88, Jordi Miralda-Escude´89,44 Hironao Miyatake36,74, Antonio D. Montero-Dorta7, Surhud More74, Eric Morganson53, Xan Morice-Atkinson32, Heather L. Morrison66, Beno^ıt Mosser90, Demitri Muna8, Adam D. Myers91, Kirpal Nandra41, Jeffrey A. Newman9, Mark Neyrinck63, Duy Cuong Nguyen92, Robert C. Nichol32, David L. Nidever93, Pasquier Noterdaeme56, Sebastian´ E. Nuza5, Julia E. O'Connell61, Robert W. O'Connell14, Ross O'Connell1, Ricardo L. C. Ogando33,34, Matthew D. Olmstead7,94, Audrey E. Oravetz20,21, Daniel J. Oravetz20, Keisuke Osumi1, Russell Owen6, Deborah L. Padgett95, Nikhil Padmanabhan45, Martin Paegert19, Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille10, Kaike Pan20, John K. Parejko96, Isabelle Paris^ 97, Changbom Park98, Petchara Pattarakijwanich36, M. Pellejero-Ibanez3,4, Joshua Pepper99,19, Will J. Percival32, Ismael Perez-Fournon´ 3,4, Ignasi Perez-R´ afols` 44,100, Patrick Petitjean56, Matthew M. Pieri101,32, Marc H. Pinsonneault8, Gustavo F. Porto de Mello50,34, Francisco Prada2,102,103, Abhishek Prakash9, Adrian M. Price-Whelan104, Pavlos Protopapas105, M. Jordan Raddick63, Mubdi Rahman63, Beth A. Reid106,12, James Rich10, Hans-Walter Rix75, Annie C. Robin107, Constance M. Rockosi108, Tha´ıse S. Rodrigues64,109,34, Sergio Rodr´ıguez-Torres2,102, Natalie A. Roe12, Ashley J. Ross32,69, Nicholas P. Ross110, Graziano Rossi111,10, John J. Ruan6, J. A. Rubino-Mart~ ´ın3,4, Eli S. Rykoff112, Salvador Salazar-Albornoz113,41, Mara Salvato41,114, Lado Samushia115,116, Ariel G. Sanchez´ 41, Bas´ılio Santiago117,34, Conor Sayres6, Ricardo P. Schiavon118,119, David J. Schlegel12, Sarah J. Schmidt8, Donald P. Schneider17,29, Mathias Schultheis120, Axel D. Schwope5, C. G. Scoccola´ 3,4, Caroline Scott53, Kris Sellgren8, Hee-Jong Seo121, Aldo Serenelli122, Neville Shane14, Yue Shen15,72, Matthew Shetrone123, Yiping Shu7, V. Silva Aguirre39, Thirupathi Sivarani124, M. F. Skrutskie14, Anˇze Slosar125, Verne V. Smith126, Flavia´ Sobreira34,127, Diogo Souto33, Keivan G. Stassun19,128, Matthias Steinmetz5, Dennis Stello39,70, Michael A. Strauss36,129, Alina Streblyanska3,4, Nao Suzuki74, Molly E. C. Swanson53, Jonathan C. Tan46, Jamie Tayar8, Ryan C. Terrien17,18,130, Aniruddha R. Thakar63, Daniel Thomas32,131, Neil Thomas46, Benjamin A. Thompson61, Jeremy L. Tinker24, Rita Tojeiro132, Nicholas W. Troup14, Mariana Vargas-Magana~ 1, Jose A. Vazquez125, Licia Verde89,44,133, Matteo Viel97,134, Nicole P. Vogt21, David A. Wake77,135, Ji Wang13, Benjamin A. Weaver24, David H. Weinberg8, Benjamin J. Weiner35, Martin White12,106, John C. Wilson14, John P. Wisniewski136, W. M. Wood-Vasey9,129, Christophe Yeche` 10, Donald G. York137, Nadia L. Zakamska63, O. Zamora3,4, Gail Zasowski63, Idit Zehavi66, Gong-Bo Zhao138,32, Zheng Zheng7, Xu Zhou (h旭)139, 2 Zhimin Zhou (h志民)139, Hu Zou (¹N)139 Guangtun Zhu63,88, Draft version May 22, 2015 ABSTRACT The third generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) took data from 2008 to 2014 us- ing the original SDSS wide-field imager, the original and an upgraded multi-object fiber-fed optical spectrograph, a new near-infrared high-resolution spectrograph, and a novel optical interferometer. All the data from SDSS-III are now made public. In particular, this paper describes Data Release 11 (DR11) including all data acquired through 2013 July, and Data Release 12 (DR12) adding data acquired through 2014 July (including all data included in previous data releases), marking the end of SDSS-III observing. Relative to our previous public release (DR10), DR12 adds one million new spectra of galaxies and quasars from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) over an additional 3000 deg2 of sky, more than triples the number of H-band spectra of stars as part of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), and includes repeated accurate radial velocity measurements of 5500 stars from the Multi-Object APO Radial Velocity Ex- oplanet Large-area Survey (MARVELS). The APOGEE outputs now include measured abundances of 15 different elements for each star. In total, SDSS-III added 2350 deg2 of ugriz imaging; 155,520 spectra of 138,099 stars as part of the Sloan Exploration of Galactic Understanding and Evolution 2 (SEGUE-2) survey; 2,497,484 BOSS spectra of 1,372,737 galaxies, 294,512 quasars, and 247,216 stars over 9376 deg2; 618,080 APOGEE spectra of 156,593 stars; and 197,040 MARVELS spectra of 5,513 stars. Since its first light in 1998, SDSS has imaged over 1/3 of the Celestial sphere in five bands and obtained over five million astronomical spectra. Keywords: Atlases|Catalogs|Surveys 1 McWilliams Center for Cosmology, Department of Physics, University, P.O. Box 30001, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 22 Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow State Univer- 15213, USA sity, Universitetskij Prosp. 13, Moscow 119992, Russia 2 Instituto de F´ısica Te´orica, (UAM/CSIC), Universidad 23 University of Pennsylvania, Department of Physics and Aut´onomade Madrid, Cantoblanco, E-28049 Madrid, Spain Astronomy, 219 S. 33rd St., Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA 3 Instituto de Astrof´ısicade Canarias (IAC), C/V´ıaL´actea, 24 Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Department of s/n, E-38200, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain Physics, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, 4 Departamento de Astrof´ısica, Universidad de La Laguna, NY 10003, USA E-38206, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain 25 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of 5 Leibniz-Institut f¨urAstrophysik Potsdam (AIP), An der California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA Sternwarte 16, D-14482 Potsdam, Germany 26 Rider University, 2083 Lawrenceville Road, Lawrenceville, 6 Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box NJ 08648, USA 351580, Seattle, WA 98195, USA 27 Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein Drive, Princeton, 7 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, NJ 08540, USA Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA 28 John Bahcall fellow. 8 Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 West 29 Institute for Gravitation and