Background:

GBIF has set the target of (a) discovery of up to 5 billion, and (b) mobilisation of up to 2 billion primary biodiversity records by the end of 2010. To achieve this target and to encourage discovery and mobilisation of primary biodiversity data, a well defined policy, technical, professional, and social framework is essential. Such a framework should further incentivise the investment and efforts of individual scientists and R&D organisations in generation, management and dissemination of ‘primary biodiversity data’ following open access principles.

Task Group Objective:

To provide recommendations on needs and potentials for bringing a cultural change towards free and open access to primary biodiversity data through establishment of a ‘Data Publishing Framework’ that addresses social, technical, and policy concerns on this topic. Recommendations will include a practical mechanism to put in place a system to incentivise individual and institutional efforts in data generation, management and dissemination of data following open access principles.

Terms of Reference:

• Review of primary scientific data publishing/dissemination in various disciplines and comparison with the current state of ‘primary biodiversity data’ publishing/dissemination.
• Identification of social, technical and policy interventions that would encourage the publication of ‘primary biodiversity data’ as a necessary and in-built step within the science data management cycle.
• Investigate opportunities and mechanisms to incentivise and attribute credit for investment in primary data publishing, from individual to institutional to national levels.
• Conceptualise a ‘Data Citation Index (DCI)’ together with technical implications of its implementation within the GBIF network.
• Provide recommendations in a report to the GBIF Executive Secretary on or before 1 September 2009.

Timeline of Activities:

Task Group: Characteristics, Timeline, Modus Operandi

The Task Group should start functioning from late February 2009 and should remain active until the final report is submitted by 1 September 2009. The Task Group will convene most of its business remotely through mailing-list, wiki, skype and conference calls. Regular physical meetings are not planned but at least one is foreseen in order to synthesise the survey results and to formulate the draft first round report.

Since the Task Group mandate cuts across social, professional, technical and policy aspects of data publishing, it will work synergistically with other GBIF Task Groups, on for example. LSIDs, Metadata, Content Needs Assessments, and Global Strategy and Action Plans, etc. The Task Group would also seek to draw inputs from professional scientific societies (e.g. CODATA, ICZN, ICBN, National Science Academies, etc.) and from science publishers. The Task Group would benefit from the investigations carried out by the GBIF Data Citation Task Group and its white paper.

The Task Group will be coordinated by and report through the DIGIT Programme Officer at the GBIF Secretariat.

Task Group: Composition

The Task Group should consist of 6-7 experts in the fields of primary scientific data publishing, scientometrics, social and political science with expertise in data publishing, algorithm development, and experts with experience in data publishing infrastructural implementation (technical) would be encouraged. Given the nature of the exercise, representation of the various scientific domains, especially biological sciences needs to be ensured. Considering the global scale of this exercise an attempt will also be made to maintain regional balance.

Call for Nominations:

This call is to seek nominations from the Heads of Delegations (HoD) for membership in a “GBIF Task Group on a Data Publishing Framework”. The list of GBIF Heads of Delegations is available at http://www.gbif.org/GBIF_org/whoiswho/gb.

Please recommend individuals with senior-level expertise who could contribute towards the stated objectives of the Task Group. Members of the Task Group will be required to devote considerable time for frequent discussions, conference calls, and timely inputs towards various activities of this exercise. No remuneration for time spent is envisaged; however logistical/travel costs of meeting/s will be covered.

Please send your recommendations by February 27, 2009 to Vishwas Chavan, GBIF Senior Programme Officer for Digitisation and Mobilisation of Primary Biodiversity Data (vchavan@gbif.org) together with CV of the nominee indicating that they have accepted the nomination and ToRs.