Mobilizing data for research and policy
Siro Masinde
Programme Officer for Content Mobilization, GBIF Secretariat
AFRICA RISING CONFERENCE: MOBILIZING BIODIVERSITY DATA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - 19 – 22 MAY 2015
DEFINE GOAL AND ACCESS POLICY
• Preservation, internal use,
wider dissemination?
• Access mode - internal use or
internet access?
• Access policy & license
GBIF promotes open access
CC0 (no rights reserved)
CC-BY (attribution alone)
CC-BY-NC (attribution & noncommercial)
• Clear copyright & other IP
concerns
SOURCES OF DATA
Specimens from
museum and
herbarium
collections
Observations & Sampling
from field surveys, monitoring,
inventories and citizen scientists
Records
extracted
from
literature
TYPES OF DATA SERVED THRO GBIF
1. Occurrence data – from
specimens & observations
2. Sample based data – from
ecological monitoring and
assessments
3. Checklists – names
4. Metadata – providing
structured descriptions of
datasets - can result in
publication of data papers
http://www.gbif.org/dataset
CHOICE OF DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
• Commercial or open source?
• Simple data spread sheets, e.g.
Excel or relational database, e.g.,
MS Access
• Choose from freely available data
management software, e.g.,
BRAHMS, SPECIFY
• Develop own system
• Use community-accepted
software tools that enable
interconnectivity and
interoperability
http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/ ; http://specifyx.specifysoftware.org/
METADATA STANDARDS
Metadata describe “who, what, where,
when and how” pertaining to a
resource; and support:
• discovery
• Interpretation / evaluation
- provenance
- quality
- fitness-for-use
• analytical re-use
• Use community-accepted standards
for data and metadata for
interoperability, e.g., Darwin Core,
EML, ABCD, NCD
http://www.tdwg.org/biodiv-networks/
EQUIPMENT FOR DATA CAPTURE
Choice dependent on:
• Goal / Purpose of project
• Scale of materials to be
digitized / captured
• Types of material and data to
be digitized / captured
• Space available for doing the
work
• Skills required to operate
equipment
• Capital cost and maintenance
Photo: https://www.idigbio.org/content/entomologists-gather-insect-digitization-workshop-chicago
WHAT SKILLS ARE NEEDED TO
ACHIEVE THE GOAL
• Project Manager
• Materials / science expert
• Digitizers / data capture
personnel
• Systems specialist / IT
expertise
• Consider training and staff
turnover issues
http://www.gbif.org/page/80492
CONSISTENCY AND RECORD KEEPING
• Technical specifications of
what is captured
• Consistency in data capture
• Proper record keeping to keep
track of all outputs – e.g. file
naming standards, where kept
• Custom info about project, e.g.,
name of digitizer, data capture
date, remarks
Photo: http://bc-injury-law.com/blog/tag/edmondson-v-payer
DATA STORAGE AND BACKUP
• Plan for data storage space –
Megabites, Terabytes,
Petabytes,…..?
• Back up to avoid losing data
• Infrastructural considerations
dependent on location of
project, e.g. electricity supply,
climatic conditions
• Security of data, materials and
equipment
QUALITY CONTROL
• Technical specifications of
what is captured
• Correct scientific information
• Missing data
• Duplications
• Interpretation
• Other errors
PUBLISHING DATA ONLINE
• Integrated Publishing Toolkit is the
main GBIF tool to support data
publishing – over 100 IPTs
• IPT enables publishing from
databases, Excel spreadsheets or
text files using Darwin Core and
Ecological Metadata Language
standards
• IPT links to DataCite and issues DOIs
for datasets to facilitate their citation
http://www.gbif.org/ipt
DATA USE IN RESEARCH AND POLICY
• What do researchers need?
• What do policy makers need?
• What do citizens need?
• Is Africa playing an active role
in mobilizing, sharing and
using biodiversity data?
• How can we optimally mobilize
data and make best use of it?
• What are the main barriers to
data mobilization in Africa?
Photo:https://plus.google.com/communities/104252472878806080294
THANK YOU!
Web site: www.gbif.org
GBIF Secretariat
Universitetsparken 15
2100 Copenhagen
Denmark
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +45 3532 1470
Fax:
+45 3532 1480
OR
Contact your national
node or any GBIF
Participant near you
www.gbif.org