Wikidata for botanists: benefits of collaborating and sharing Linked Open Data

Wikidata is a multilingual linked open knowledge base to which anyone can contribute that contains multitudes of botany-related information. Wikidata reveals interactions between entities and connects botany-related information from multiple institutions and other sources, benefiting the botanical community in numerous ways. The aim of this article is to give an overview of Wikidata from a botany perspective and issue a call to action to the botanical community to collectively improve the quantity and quality of information related to botany, botanists and botanical collections, in Wikidata. Here, we use a broad definition of botany to include the study of many different taxa and specializations.

Wikidata contains botany-related data and identifiers for botanists and botanical collectors, botanical taxa, natural history institutions and collections, botany-related publications, geographical locations and research expeditions, as well as genes, genetic variants, chemical compounds, diseases, and more. As an open, collaborative and community-curated knowledge base, Wikidata enables different communities to add and link data related to botany and empowers the querying and reuse of this data via digital tools such as the Wikidata Query Service, Bionomia, Scholia, TL-2 and Expeditia.

Collaboration is key in botany and Wikidata, and the sharing and enriching of botany-related Linked Open Data benefits us all. Several resources, including ethical and legal guidelines, are available for botanists to edit, use, reuse, roundtrip and teach Wikidata. We call on all botanists to be active participants in Wikidata, improving the quality, quantity and linking of botany-related data. Our individual and collective actions can help harness the power of Linked Open Data to answer important queries in the field, improve accessibility of herbaria, increase visibility of botanists and their scientific contributions, integrate Wikidata into the classroom, support the Madrid Declaration strategic actions, achieve our collective goals, and ultimately make botany-related information more FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and equitable.