Interoperability model between PLAZI and the CDM Platform

<p>Interoperability model between PLAZI and the CDM Platform.</p

Tracking biogeographical change from its footprints in botanical literature

<p>Early results from an investigation into the usefulness of botanical literature to provide historical information on the distributions of plants. Based upon the case of <em>Chenopodium vulvaria</em>, a small weed of waste places.</p

Representation of associated units in ABCD 2.1.

<p>A DNA Sample with the triple ID “DB 4745—BGBM—DNA Bank” is associated to a tissue (triple ID “B GT 0004682—BGBM—Herbarium Berolinense”). This tissue is associated to a herbarium sheet (triple ID “B 10 0163635—BGBM—Herbarium Berolinense”). The associated dataset access point and triple ID make it possible to retrieve each record.</p

ABCD versions supported by the GBIF-HIT and B-HIT.

<p>Supported ABCD versions are marked with an X.</p><p>ABCD versions supported by the GBIF-HIT and B-HIT.</p

GBIF-HIT Harvesting process.

<p>It consists of 4 major steps that have to be executed after each update of a datasource. The harvested data is eventually parsed and stored into the database.</p

Export subset of the quality logs.

<p>The dedicated tables, for each kind of test, store the test name, the value from the provider, the improved value, and a brief explanation. The list of concerned records is also saved in the quality tables for helping the provider to find and correct its data.</p><p>Export subset of the quality logs.</p

Web interface of B-HIT.

<p>This extended user-interface makes it possible to gain access to the new functionalities (i.e. Associated Datasource Harvesting, Data quality, Datasource Management) through a series of tabs.</p

Principal model of raw and improved data in the B-HIT database.

<p>Corresponding raw and improved table (i.e. identification from the provider and improved identification) are linked through a 1–1 relation. Multiple identifications can be associated to a single record and are therefore linked through a 1-n relation with the (raw) occurrence table.</p

Draft policy on Open Access for data and information

<p>At present, national provisions on copyright and database protection regarding exceptions and limitations for research purposes differ both in detail and substance. Scientists within the EU working with copyright protected works or with protected databases have to be aware that regulations may vary considerably from country to country. This can be a major stumbling block to international collaboration in science.</p> <p>The document addresses legal issues that hamper an integrative system for managing biodiversity knowledge in Europe. It describes the importance for scientists to have access to documents and data in order to synthesize disparate information and to facilitate data mining (or similar research techniques). It explores some aspects of copyright and database protection that influence access to and re-use of biodiversity data and information and refers to exceptions and limitations of copyright or database protection provided for within the relevant EU Directives.</p

Report on the state and quality of biosystematics documents and survey reports

<p>The traditional audience for books and scientific papers in which scientists report their findings has been the human reader. Now we can enhance publications by attaching to them many different kinds of digital objects (such as the sounds made by birds, maps that show where they occur, or images and videos) or by adding computer-readable sections and terms that allow computers to extract information for re-use. We refer to these enriched and marked-up documents as 'enhanced'.</p> <p>While the technology is available, only a tiny proportion of scientific publications are enhanced. Without enhancement, the research that is reported in the biosystematic (= taxonomic) literature cannot participate quickly and easily in the big data world.</p> <p>The EU e-Infrastructure coordination project "pro-iBiosphere", targeting the preparation of the European Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management System, makes thirteen recommendations to enhance the publication process in order to to make biodiversity data accessible, computable and re-usable. These recommendations are a plea for a major change in how we publish biodiversity research. If adopted, they have the potential to transform the role of scientific publications. The recommendations include the need to make all biosystematic literature "openly and freely accessible to the maximum extent possible and for it to be marked up with computer-legible terms from an open, platform-independent XML or similar language. Mark-up allows computers to understand what is in a document, and to extract content for use elsewhere. The complete list of recommendations is available on "The State and Quality of Biosystematics Documents and Survey Reports".</p> <p>The report demonstrates that publishers and scientists are not using new technologies to their full potential. The process of publication has historically targeted scientific articles that are suited to human readership. Nowadays, articles can also be used as vehicles for data that can be extracted and then re-used by others. This process does not reduce the value of articles for people, but creates a richer and more valuable resource at a very small additional cost</p> <p>The authors of the report recognise that the community must build an infrastructure that can capture and manage the rich supply of re-usable data, and make it available to other users, for example through the Linked Open Data Cloud. Only through this process, can the very rich corpus of data and its underlying sources in the published record be linked to the huge production of born-digital genomic data. With developments such as this, biologists will be better placed to rise to the grander challenges, such as understanding how the natural world will respond to a warming world. (Description by Donat Agosti, September 2013)</p