Here are some tools commonly used for data liberation and publishing in the field of biodiversity:
- GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility):
- Description: GBIF is an international network and research infrastructure that facilitates the free and open access to biodiversity data worldwide. It provides a platform for researchers and institutions to publish and access biodiversity datasets.
- Website: GBIF
- DataONE:
- Description: DataONE is a virtual organisation dedicated to providing access to environmental and Earth science data. It offers tools and resources for data management, including data publishing and sharing within the scientific community.
- Website: DataONE
- DataCite:
- Description: DataCite is an international organisation that provides Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for research datasets. It is widely used for citing and tracking datasets, contributing to their discoverability and accessibility.
- Website: DataCite
- Zenodo:
- Description: Zenodo is a general-purpose open-access repository developed under the European OpenAIRE program. It allows researchers to deposit and share research outputs, including datasets, in a variety of formats.
- Website: Zenodo
- Dryad:
- Description: Dryad is a curated general-purpose repository that makes the data underlying scientific publications discoverable, freely reusable, and citable. It is often used for sharing biodiversity-related datasets.
- Website: Dryad
- iNaturalist:
- Description: iNaturalist is a citizen science platform that allows users to record and share observations of plants and animals. It serves as a valuable resource for biodiversity data and contributes to global scientific research.
- Website: iNaturalist
- Atlas of Living Australia (ALA):
- Description: ALA is a collaborative, national project that aggregates biodiversity data from multiple sources. It provides tools for researchers and the public to access, explore, and analyze biodiversity information.
- Website: Atlas of Living Australia
- BioSharing:
- Description: BioSharing is a community-led, registry of interlinked data standards, databases, and policies in the life sciences. It provides information on standards and best practices for data sharing in biodiversity research.
- Website: BioSharing
Still, this current set of existing tools has proved insufficient and remains operating in isolation for concrete purposes (uploading to certain aggregators, as it is the case of GBIF) or specific communities (as it is the case for BioSharing in the life sciences realm). It is also important to remember that before using any tool, the specific needs and requirements of each biodiversity dataset, as well as any data sharing policies and standards within the scientific community, are to be met. Equally, the data sharing needs to comply with applicable ethical guidelines and fall under the relevant legal frameworks.
In such a context, other tools are appearing, specifically to tackle taxonomic information, and to expand the linkage from unique sources to a varied set of them. Among those, the PLAZI Workflow stands as a very relevant mechanism to improve data liberation and information extraction from biodiversity platforms.