Data Leakage and Loss in Biodiversity Informatics
The field of biodiversity informatics is in a massive, “grow-out” phase of creating and enabling large-scale biodiversity data resources. Because perhaps 90% of existing biodiversity data nonetheless remains unavailable for science and policy applications, the question arises as to how these exis...
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doaj-4d78603cda3345c6b93296a31131430d2020-11-25T02:16:13ZengPensoft PublishersBiodiversity Data Journal1314-28361314-28282018-11-01611510.3897/BDJ.6.e2682626826Data Leakage and Loss in Biodiversity InformaticsA. Townsend Peterson0Alex Asase1Dora Canhos2Sidnei de Souza3John Wieczorek4Biodiversity Institute, University of KansasUniversity of GhanaCRIACRIAMuseum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California The field of biodiversity informatics is in a massive, “grow-out” phase of creating and enabling large-scale biodiversity data resources. Because perhaps 90% of existing biodiversity data nonetheless remains unavailable for science and policy applications, the question arises as to how these existing and available data records can be mobilized most efficiently and effectively. This situation led to our analysis of several large-scale biodiversity datasets regarding birds and plants, detecting information gaps and documenting data “leakage” or attrition, in terms of data on taxon, time, and place, in each data record. We documented significant data leakage in each data dimension in each dataset. That is, significant numbers of data records are lacking crucial information in terms of taxon, time, and/or place; information on place was consistently the least complete, such that geographic referencing presently represents the most significant factor in degradation of usability of information from biodiversity information resources. Although the full process of digital capture, quality control, and enrichment is important to developing a complete digital record of existing biodiversity information, payoffs in terms of immediate data usability will be greatest with attention paid to the georeferencing challenge. https://bdj.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=26826biodiversity datausabilityfitness for use |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
A. Townsend Peterson Alex Asase Dora Canhos Sidnei de Souza John Wieczorek |
spellingShingle |
A. Townsend Peterson Alex Asase Dora Canhos Sidnei de Souza John Wieczorek Data Leakage and Loss in Biodiversity Informatics Biodiversity Data Journal biodiversity data usability fitness for use |
author_facet |
A. Townsend Peterson Alex Asase Dora Canhos Sidnei de Souza John Wieczorek |
author_sort |
A. Townsend Peterson |
title |
Data Leakage and Loss in Biodiversity Informatics |
title_short |
Data Leakage and Loss in Biodiversity Informatics |
title_full |
Data Leakage and Loss in Biodiversity Informatics |
title_fullStr |
Data Leakage and Loss in Biodiversity Informatics |
title_full_unstemmed |
Data Leakage and Loss in Biodiversity Informatics |
title_sort |
data leakage and loss in biodiversity informatics |
publisher |
Pensoft Publishers |
series |
Biodiversity Data Journal |
issn |
1314-2836 1314-2828 |
publishDate |
2018-11-01 |
description |
The field of biodiversity informatics is in a massive, “grow-out” phase of creating and enabling large-scale biodiversity data resources. Because perhaps 90% of existing biodiversity data nonetheless remains unavailable for science and policy applications, the question arises as to how these existing and available data records can be mobilized most efficiently and effectively. This situation led to our analysis of several large-scale biodiversity datasets regarding birds and plants, detecting information gaps and documenting data “leakage” or attrition, in terms of data on taxon, time, and place, in each data record. We documented significant data leakage in each data dimension in each dataset. That is, significant numbers of data records are lacking crucial information in terms of taxon, time, and/or place; information on place was consistently the least complete, such that geographic referencing presently represents the most significant factor in degradation of usability of information from biodiversity information resources. Although the full process of digital capture, quality control, and enrichment is important to developing a complete digital record of existing biodiversity information, payoffs in terms of immediate data usability will be greatest with attention paid to the georeferencing challenge.
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topic |
biodiversity data usability fitness for use |
url |
https://bdj.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=26826 |
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