TDWG/GBIF GUID-1 Workshop Report

[Richard Pyle]

>"5. Investigate the feasibility, existing actors and requirements for a
>  Publication Bank  (a resource to act as a central registry of taxonomic
> literature and its digital representations, including assigning GUIDs to
> each publication."
>
> In prokaryote systematics we already have registration/indexing of names
> (been in place since 1980 - lots of experience). The system relies on peer
> review publications. Those names not officially indexed/registered would
> also generally appear in peer reviewed journals. De facto we are already
> starting to use DOI links to articles produced by the major publishing
> houses. Have I missed something?

To accomodate historical zoological and botanical taxon names, GUIDs need to
be assigned to publicaiton objects (or digital representations thereof) that
have not traditionally been assigned DOIs (e.g., old books, specific
sections of books, specific subsections of book sections or articles, etc.).
There may also be reason to expand the scope of "publication" objects to
include unpublished documentation instances (ranging from gray literature,
to popular articles, or even correspondence, field notebooks, and other
single-copy documentation types).

Whether or not the bioinformatics community embraces DOIs for these sorts of
"documentation" objects (sensu lato), or LSIDs, or a mixture of both, is a
separate issue from the one raised in the point 5 that you responded to.
Ultimately, someone needs to assign GUIDs to those documentation objects
needed by the biodiversity informatics community, but that do not
automatically receive a DOI or other type of GUID.  One approach would be
for every individual data provider that maintains a listing of literature
and/or other documentation citations to assign their own GUIDs to these
objects.  This would probably be the fastest/easiest way to get moving
forward.  But another approach is to establish some sort of "publication
bank" -- a common "watering hole" for publication GUIDs around which the
biodiversity informatics community congregates, thereby minimizing
unnecessary GUID duplication (i.e., maximzing re-use of GUIDs for shared
objects).

I don't know if this addresses your question, but if not, then perhaps I've
also missed something?

Aloha,
Rich

Richard L. Pyle, PhD
Database Coordinator for Natural Sciences
Department of Natural Sciences, Bishop Museum
1525 Bernice St., Honolulu, HI 96817
Ph: (808)848-4115, Fax: (808)847-8252
email: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html