demonstration portal
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Sign in

Contribute data

Overview

Data is read into the portal in Darwin Core Archive format. A Darwin Core Archive is a zip file containing one or more delimited (e.g. CSV) files, and a metadata file which defines what data type each column contains. Darwin Core Archives can be produced by Scratchpads, BioCASe, the GBIF IPT system, or manually. GBIF provide a Darwin Core Archive Validator.

Darwin Core defines many terms (data types / column headings). The portal only recognises some terms; these are described below.

Darwin Core Archive records have a star-like structure: a single central record (e.g. a name) can have multiple records of other types linked from it — descriptions, distributions, and so on. The central name record should be of type http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Taxon, and needs to include these Darwin Core terms:

  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/taxonID: an identifier for the taxon/name
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/type: set to "Taxon".
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/datasetName: set to the name of your dataset
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/license: the license the data is supplied under
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/language: the language code (e.g. "en") for any descriptive data

Descriptive resources

Descriptive data of all kinds needs to be linked to a taxon known to the portal. For the portal to recognise a taxon, it needs to use an identifier from a taxonomic resource imported into the portal. For example, the identifier for Nervilia ballii G. Will. is urn:kew.org:wcs:taxon:135257. Use these identifiers in the http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/taxonID column of the central taxon record.

Descriptive data is included using Darwin Core Archive extensions. Create one with the type http://rs.gbif.org/terms/1.0/Description, and use these terms:

  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/type: the type of description, one of "general", "distribution", "habitat", "morphology", "literature".
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/source: ¿not used by eFloras?
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/description: the descriptive text

Additional terms can be included, they will be ignored.

Example dataset

This example Darwin Core Archive contains a single species record from Flora Zambesiaca with general, distribution, habitat, morphology, and literature descriptions, as well as references. Compare the record on the online version of Flora Zambesiaca, or the record as it appears in this portal.

Taxonomic resources

A taxonomic resource extends the taxonomy (names and relationships between them) of the portal. Like descriptive data, in order to link in to the portal's taxonomy it must use the portal's identifier for a suitable higher taxon (e.g. a family).

Recognised Darwin Core terms

These terms are recognised by the portal for a Taxon:

  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/accessRights
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/created
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/license
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/modified
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/rights
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/rightsHolder
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/bibliographicCitation
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/class
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/family
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/genus
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/infraspecificEpithet
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/kingdom
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/nameAccordingTo
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/namePublishedIn
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/namePublishedInString
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/namePublishedInYear
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/nomenclaturalCode
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/nomenclaturalStatus
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/order
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/phylum
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/scientificName
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/scientificNameAuthorship
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/scientificNameID
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/source
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/specificEpithet
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/subfamily
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/subgenus
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/subtribe
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/taxonomicStatus
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/taxonRank
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/taxonRemarks
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/tribe
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/taxonRank
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/parentNameUsage
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/acceptedNameUsage
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/originalNameUsage
  • http://e-monocot.org/subfamily
  • http://e-monocot.org/tribe
  • http://e-monocot.org/subtribe

These terms are recognised by the portal for a Reference:

  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/bibliographicCitation
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/creator
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/date
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/description
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/language
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/source
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/title
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/type
  • http://purl.org/dc/terms/uri
  • http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/taxonRemarks

Example dataset

This example Darwin Core Archive contains the two taxa in Amborellaceae, from the World Checklist. It also contains distributions and some other descriptive data. The id for the family is urn:kew.org:wcs:family:87, which needs to be used to link into the portal's classification.