The data available through GBIF.org and its associated services is the result of the GBIF network of Participants and publishers applying shared rules and conventions to describe, record and structure thousands of different datasets drawn from hundreds of institutions around the world. Common standards are the main enabler for bringing together the hundreds of millions of primary biodiversity records in the GBIF index.
Within the biodiversity domain, the group most often responsible for developing and maintaining data standards is Biodiversity Information Standards. As an affiliate of the International Union of Biological Science, this nonprofit scientific and educational association focuses on the development of standards for the exchange of biological and biodiversity data. Members of the biodiversity community generally refer to this group as TDWG (pronounced tad-wig)—a vestigial reminder of its earlier manifestation as the Taxonomic Databases Working Group.
Commonly used standards
Darwin Core
The Darwin Core Standard (DwC) offers a stable, straightforward and flexible framework for compiling biodiversity data from varied and variable sources. The majority of the datasets shared through GBIF.org are published using the Darwin Core Archive format (DwC-A).
- What is Darwin Core, and why does it matter?
- Introduction to sampling-event data
- iOBIS Darwin Core manual
- Darwin Core terms (via Gcube Wiki)
EML: Ecological Metadata Language
Ecological Metadata Language, or EML, is a metadata standard that records information about ecological datasets in a series of modular and extensible XML document types. All of the descriptions of datasets in GBIF.org rely on ‘metadata’—that is, the information about data—using the open-source EML standard, which is administered and maintained by The Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. Each Darwin Core Archive includes as one of its components an EML file (written in XML format).
BioCASe / ABCD
The Biological Collection Access Service, commonly referred to as BioCASe, is an international network linking biological collections data from natural history museums, botanical/zoological gardens and research institutions. BioCASe relies on the Access to Biological Collections Data (ABCD) data exchange standard, which TDWG also administers.