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Wanted: Standards for FAIR taxonomic concept representations and relationships
Beckett Sterner1, Nathan Upham1, Prashant Gupta1
1Arizona State University, Tempe, United States of America.
Biodiversity Information Science and Standards
|April 25, 2022
Summary
Linking biodiversity data accurately requires improving how taxonomic information is shared. Making taxonomic concepts Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) is crucial for biodiversity science.
Area of Science:
- Biodiversity Informatics
- Taxonomy
- Data Science
Background:
- Linking biodiversity occurrence records from multiple sources is essential for accurate data aggregation.
- Relying solely on taxonomic names and synonyms for aggregation has accuracy limitations due to complex name-to-entity relationships.
- Authoritative taxonomic treatments and checklists offer crucial data on name usage and semantic relationships.
Purpose of the Study:
- To advocate for extending the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) principles to taxonomic concept representations.
- To highlight the transformative potential of FAIR taxonomic data for biodiversity information sharing.
- To call for community commitment towards practical targets for publishing and digitizing taxonomic concepts.
Main Methods:
- Reviewing current limitations in biodiversity data aggregation using taxonomic names.
- Analyzing the role of taxonomic treatments and checklists in providing authoritative taxonomic intelligence.
- Examining existing standards like the Taxonomic Concept Schema and OpenBiodiv Ontology.
Main Results:
- Current methods of aggregating biodiversity data based on names are computationally efficient but lack accuracy.
- Taxonomic treatments and checklists are increasingly providing detailed semantic relationships between names.
- Making these authoritative taxonomic concepts FAIR would significantly advance biodiversity data sharing.
Conclusions:
- Greater adoption and extension of FAIR principles to taxonomic concepts are needed.
- The global Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) and taxonomy community should prioritize the digitization and publication of taxonomic concepts.
- Establishing practical targets and criteria for FAIR taxonomic data will drive innovation in biodiversity informatics.
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