Data guidelines for record level terms

Record level terms

Term	Status
type	Required *
modified	Do not use
language	Required
license	Required
rightsHolder	Required
accessRights	Strongly recommended
bibliographicCitation	Do not use
references	Share if available
institutionID	Avoid use
collectionID	Do not use
datasetID	Required *
institutionCode	Required
collectionCode	Strongly recommended *
datasetName	Required
ownerInstitutioncode	Do not use
basisOfRecord	Required
informationWithheld	Strongly recommended *
dataGeneralizations	Required *
dynamicProperties	Avoid use

* Conditional, see Details section

Details

type

Required only for occurrence datasets

Event

modified

Information we might have in our databases is often not reflective of all changes, such as changes in related tables or changes in the mapping. A better metric is the last modified information calculated by GBIF.

language

Must be English

en

license

http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

rightsHolder

Organization who has the rights to the data and in the case of multiple rights holder, the organization who managed/made the decision to release those rights under CC0. Is often the same as publishing organization. Should be a single organization.

INBO - for INBO datasets
Acronym of publishing organization - for other datasets
- Example: BGM for Botanical Garden Meise

accessRights

For INBO datasets we use this term (cf. VertNet) to link our norms for data use

https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use - for INBO datasets

bibliographicCitation

This field should not be used, it just stuffs the record with a citation that is easily outdated. Metadata is the place for citation. For checklists, the only valid use of this term is to indicate the source of the taxon record (a field source is not available in the taxon core, in contrast with distribution extension).

references

Should be a URL to that record on a public website.

Example:

http://waarnemingen.be/waarneming/view/113530380

institutionID

There is no single, widely-used registry for institutions, so avoid use.

collectionID

We hardly have any collection information, so do not use.

datasetID

Should be the full URL DOI of the dataset. Is generated after first publication of the dataset on GBIF, so can only be included on second publication.

Examples:

https://doi.org/10.15468/wtda1m - for the Manual of Alien Plants Belgium
https://doi.org/10.15468/2dboyn - for the Catalogue of the Rust Fungi of Belgium

institutionCode

Acronym of the organization who is custodian of the data. Should be the same as rightsholder. Should be a single organization.

INBO - for INBO datasets
Acronym of publishing organization - for other datasets
- Example: BGM for Botanical Garden Meise

collectionCode

Strongly recommended if data are kept in a recognizable data system. Use acronym of data system that holds the data. Avoid spaces.

Examples:

NBN
VIS
ABV
InboVeg
UvA-BiTS

datasetName

Title of the published dataset (same as title in metadata). Is useful as a human readable name of originating dataset in aggregated data.

ownerInstitutionCode

Do not use this field, it is too similar in definition to rightsHolder.

basisOfRecord

Is a fixed vocabulary:

PreservedSpecimen
FossilSpecimen
LivingSpecimen
HumanObservation
MachineObservation
MaterialSample
Occurrence

informationWithheld

Strongly recommended if substantial information is withheld (measurements, etc.). Only use the value “see metadata” and indicate in second paragraph of description.

dataGeneralizations

Required if data are generalized. As this affects use of the data, it is preferred to have a short sentence rather than referring to metadata.