A paradigm shift in biodiversity publishing
The new Biodiversity Data Journal
E. Baker1, D.N Koureas1, L. Penev2
1 Natural History Museum, London2 Bulgarian Academy of Sciences & Pensoft Publishers, Sofia
Publications based on countless
specimens, images, maps, keys and datasets
Current taxonomic data production
Figure from Costello M.J et al, 2013. doi: 10.1126/science.1230318
On the other hand:
Estimates of
7.5 million species
still undescribed1
1How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean? Mora C et al.
doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127
Expected volume
of taxonomic and
biodiversity data
Need of extracting,
aggregating and linking
data on a global level
The four nodes of data cycle
1. We collect and generate data
2. We curate, link and structure data
3. We analyse data
4. We publish data
Data curation
Data publishing
The four nodes of data cycle
Data collection &generation
What are the
bottlenecks
in the workflow?
Data analysis
Lack of a wider conceptual frameLack of resources (incl. time)Time consuming workShifting to a new project
Investigator-focused
small data
dark data
20%
80%
Published and discoverable data
Dark data more important mainly due to their volume1
1Heidorn PB. Library Trends 57:280-299
Typically generated by
small communities or
individual researchers for “local” research projects
small data count!
Local floristic/faunistic studies
Singe nomenclatural acts
Small taxonomic treatments
Ecological and morphological datasets
Occurrence records
The building blocks of the world of biodiversity…
Publishing & Dissemination
impediment
Deprives the community of invaluable data
Mobilisationimpediment
Prevents researchers from taking credit for their work
The BIG question
How do you incentivise researchers to use tools that structure and open their data?
Enable them to take credit for ALL their work
?
!
Biodiversity Data Journal
• Open Access peer-review data
journal
• Structured, reusable,
standardized data
• Linked to Scratchpads via
Publication Module
http://biodiversitydatajournal.com/
What BDJ publish?
• Single taxon treatments and nomenclatural acts
• Local or regional checklists
• Sampling reports and occasional inventories
• Habitat-based checklists and inventories
• Ecological and biological observations
• Single identification keys
• Biodiversity-related databases, including genomic, ecological
and environmental data (data papers)
• Biodiversity-related software tools & software documentation
Speeding up: Pensoft Writing Tool
• Collaborative online editing
• Uses templates
• Identification key builder
• Assemble plates from single figures
• Import specimens (DwC-A)
• Import references (CrossRef, PubMed, …)
Choose article template
Assign classifications
Taxon Treatment
Manuscript Preview
Reuse of Data
Published ManuscriptPDF, HTML, XML
Articles Bibliographies Occurrences Taxon Treatments Taxon Names
Publish or perish?
Biodiversity informatics tools and e-infrastructures can be used to
take credit for our work
and
gain greater exposure for our data
