Data standards: objective data, subjective data, and data interchange
Weitzman, A. L.1 & Lyal, C. H. C.2
1The National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA, weitzman@si.edu
2The Natural History Museum, Department of Entomology, London SW7 5BD, UK, c.lyal@nhm.ac.ukBiodiversity data comprise both primary and interpreted elements. The latter should be attributed and presented with appropriate metadata. Examples of objective and subjective elements will be presented in each of the above contexts and arguments for including them within a standard vs. putting them in extensions to standards will be discussed. In designing taXMLit for taxonomic literature, we chose to design it to hold only elements from the literature source as originally presented and not to include interpretations of that text. An 'interpretation layer' or extension is being designed to function as both a simple layer around the publication that will allow contributors to add information and as a complex proxy layer between the digitized publication and other digitized information sources, including a variety of kinds of authority files. This facility will enable data to be entered independently after the digitization, in the same manner that any piece of text or data requires and receives interpretation in the normal course of use. The TIL will also allow both interpretations and linkages to be attributed and dated, and allow for multiple interpretations of the same information by the same or different people or publications. This may also be needed to address the issues related to taxonomic concepts that the Names designers are grappling with. We also expect that, because the various data sources effectively will use one another as authority files, the TIL will also facilitate linkages between different taxonomic treatments, and between the treatments and other data sources. While the taXMLit uses elements that cover the same concepts as those used in other schemas (e.g. ABCD, designed for specimen data), the individual elements are not exactly the same, for a number of reasons. The TIL will facilitate mapping and linkage between schemas.