GBIF.org supports the publication of
four classes of datasets
using widely accepted
biodiversity data standards
.
At present, the GBIF network only publishes datasets directly from organizations. Individuals who wish to publish relevant datasets should work through their affiliated organizations (see 'Request endorsement' below) or consider submitting a
data paper
to one of a growing number of journals.
Citizen scientists
can contribute occurrence records indirectly by participating in the growing number of projects worldwide that publish their datasets through the GBIF network.
Secure institutional agreements
Once you decide to share data through the GBIF network, you should alert administrators of your plans to publish on behalf of your institution. Sharing open data can increase the visibility and impact of institutions, building on traditional methods like academic publications and specimen loans to reveal new opportunities for collaboration and, through the
use of DOI-based citations
, link directly to research uses (
example
).
Request endorsement
To become a data publisher, your organization must
request endorsement
from the GBIF community. Once you have reviewed the
data publisher agreement
and agree in principle to share data, we encourage you to request endorsement for your organization as soon as possible to avoid delays in publishing data.
Much of the data now shared with GBIF resides on one of the dozens of installations of the GBIF
IPT: Integrated Publishing Toolkit
and, increasingly, on national installations of the
Living Atlases
platform originally developed by the
Atlas of Living Australia
.
Other alternative arrangements exist, including those for
data hosting
both within and outside a given data-publishing institution. Highly skilled publishers can also use an API to register datasets programmatically (
contact the GBIF help desk
for more details).
We also maintain a knowledgebase of
tools
and
other documentation
.
Prepare data for publication
Data holders who choose to share their data using Darwin Core Archives (see
data standards
) can familiarize themselves with the format using spreadsheet templates created for
occurrence datasets
,
checklists
and
sampling-event datasets
.
Data holders have a choice to make regarding their arrangements for hosting data. Some choose to host and maintain instances of the
Integrated Publishing Toolkit
(IPT, a free, open-source software tool developed by the GBIF Secretariat. However, other alternatives exist, including hosted IPT services available through
national and thematic nodes
and
cloud-based regional services
maintained by the Secretariat.
Using the updated
GBIF Data Validator
, you can check datasets prior to publication and receive specific recommendations on improving and cleaning them. The report will help, for instance, by flagging duplicate records, incomplete fields and recognized inconsistencies in formatting.
You can also prepare datasets to comply with GBIF's
data quality requirements
.
Choose a Creative Commons license
In keeping with a
2014 decision by the GBIF governing board
, data publishers must assign one of the three Creative Commons licences to any occurrence dataset:
- CC0
, for data made available for any use without any restrictions
- CC BY
, for data made available for any use with appropriate attribution
- CC BY-NC
, for data made available for any non-commercial use with appropriate attribution
Note that CC-BY-NC licences have a significant effect on the reusability of data. GBIF encourages data publishers to choose the most open option they can wherever possible.
Publish datasets
If you’re using an IPT, simply click the button to ‘register’ your dataset with GBIF. Once published, you can view some quick metrics on your dataset (
example
) , user download activity (
example
) and traceable literature citations (
example
).
Incentives for publishing open-access biodiversity data
An important part of GBIF's mission is to promote a culture in which people recognize the benefits of publishing open-access biodiversity data, for themselves as well as for the broader society.
- By making your data discoverable and accessible through GBIF and similar information infrastructures, you will
contribute to global knowledge about biodiversity
, and thus to the solutions that will promote its conservation and sustainable use.
- Data publishing enables datasets held all over the world to be integrated, revealing
new opportunities for collaboration
among data owners and researchers.
- Publishing data enables individuals and institutions to be properly credited for their work to create and curate biodiversity data, by
giving visibility to publishing institutions
through good metadata authoring. This recognition can be further developed if you author a
peer-reviewed data paper
, giving scholarly recognition to the publication of biodiversity datasets.
- Collection managers can
trace usage and citations of digitized data
published from their institutions and accessed through GBIF and similar infrastructures.
- Some funding agencies now require researchers receiving public funds to
make data freely accessible
at the end of a project.