s, each with a number of sub-topics:
The term, “metadata”, refers to the information a data provider supplies to describe a data set and to help users to access it. This may include descriptions of the contents of the data set, how the data were collected, information about the collectors and owners of the data and the uses they approve for the data, and technical details required to access or interpret the data.
As a quick shorthand – when considering the task of sharing data – the specific data standards address the question of what information can be shared, the protocols address the question of how the information is to be shared and accessed, and the metadata standards address the question of why users should be interested in accessing the information. (This is an oversimplification, but may help to explain the significance of the following sections.)
The section on protocols includes some information on software packages which implement these standards.
Please consider the question of copyright and usage restrictions when making data available. The ALA has developed some draft guidelines on the subject and recommends the adoption of Creative Commons licences in most situations.
Since the ALA deals with biodiversity data, the expectation is that all data items will include a label or data element identifying the species or other taxon covered by the resource. Where feasible data providers are encouraged to use scientific names found in the AFD or the APC or the Catalogue of Life (particularly for any taxa not found in AFD/APC). However it is recognised that some data sets (particularly historical collections and literature) use names which may not be currently accepted species names. In such situations data providers are advised to use the scientific names found in the original sources. The ALA will develop or use Taxonomic Services to attempt to map such data appropriately to current species concepts.
Over the coming months, this document will be enhanced with examples for each of the standards identified.
For more information on any of these recommendations, please contact us.
The ALA aims to enable access to any type of biodiversity information. The following subsections provide guidelines for some major classes of data. These represent the classes of data on which the ALA particularly expects to focus in the earliest stages of its development. As the project proceeds, other classes will be handled in more detail.
Many of the data standards below include a unique identifier for each record. The ALA strongly recommends that all data providers supply such identifiers. Some data objects will already have an appropriate globally unique identifier. Publications may be associated with a DOI. Species characteristics and other terms from controlled vocabularies may be associated with stable HTTP URIs as identifiers. In other cases, the ALA follows the guidelines from TDWG and recommends the use of Life Science Identifiers (LSIDs) for this purpose. Constructing an LSID to serve as a record identifier gives a good guarantee of uniqueness and also allows the data provider to use LSID resolution as a means for users to be able directly to access the associated data.
Two families of data standards are in wide use around the world for exchanging data records for individual specimens in natural history collections and herbaria (including living collections such as culture collections and seed banks) and also for observations of living organisms in the field:
Each of these standards has been used in several different versions. The ALA will support the same range of versions supported by GBIF (see http://www.gbif.org/participation/participant-nodes/resources/how-to-establish-a-participant-node/):
Both Darwin Core and ABCD were developed through the work of TDWG, which has recently been reworking all of its data standards to make them more compatible and easier to use in a wide range of different situations. As part of this activity, TDWG has developed a TaxonOccurrence vocabulary which will replace both Darwin Core and ABCD. As t