What is ChecklistBank ?

[peteruetz]

Honestly, from the website it's not really clear. There is no About page ... actually there is (under "Dataset:) , but it looks like a random page of the database. It's nowhere defined what "checklist data" is, given that the entries in the database again seem like random papers with a focus on some kind of data, but there is no obvious focus on checklists of any kind. What kind of data is collected? How? What kind of data can a user find? (not even that is clear) -- Is it mainly a list of papers curated by Plazi? Or I am missing something?

[mdoering]

Yes, ChecklistBank (CLB) indeed currently lacks some documentation pages that describe its purpose, features and goals. We have some of that on the catalogue of life site, but I fully agree this needs to be migrated to the CLB site. Along with documentation on how to publish datasets.

Quick answer: at a minimum any list of scientific names is considered a checklist dataset. A classification, nomenclatural information like types, common names or distribution ranges are additional informations often found, but not strictly required in the data schema. There are large taxonomic datasets like ITIS or WoRMS in CLB, but also nomenclatural ones like IPNI. Thematic lists like Redlists, legal lists or invasive species lists. And then there is the huge number of tiny Plazi lists where a single dataset represents a single journal publication which contains taxonomic treatments.

To just search/list non Plazi datasets you can filter on dataset type and exclude article: https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset?limit=50&offset=0&reverse=false&type=nomenclatural&type=taxonomic&type=phylogenetic&type=legal&type=thematic&type=other

The About page(s) you mentioned are about a specific dataset, not CLB as a whole as you have guessed already. E.g. your ReptileDB metadata

[chantalhuijbers]

Hi Peter, as Markus has mentioned we still need to add an About page. To get you started on a better understanding of some of the tooling in ChecklistBank you can check out this tutorial: https://docs.gbif-uat.org/course-checklistbank-tutorial/en/description.html

[peteruetz]

Ok, Thanks,

Yes, an About page would be quite useful.

It seems like a useful resource but users need to know what’s there and what you can do with it :)

Peter

On Jan 5, 2023, at 4:37 PM, chantalhuijbers @.***> wrote:

Hi Peter, as Markus has mentioned we still need to add an About page. To get you started on a better understanding of some of the tooling in ChecklistBank you can check out this tutorial: https://docs.gbif-uat.org/course-checklistbank-tutorial/en/description.html https://www.google.com/url?q=https://docs.gbif-uat.org/course-checklistbank-tutorial/en/description.html&source=gmail-imap&ust=1673537907000000&usg=AOvVaw0PqZYpXoC5EfCNduJHfKOS — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://www.google.com/url?q=https://github.com/CatalogueOfLife/checklistbank/issues/1153%23issuecomment-1372377901&source=gmail-imap&ust=1673537907000000&usg=AOvVaw12tiRk4IUKxTKEtRSm-J9C, or unsubscribe https://www.google.com/url?q=https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFSDBTOPGZUME5SID5EDNCTWQ3TFLANCNFSM6AAAAAATNEJHXA&source=gmail-imap&ust=1673537907000000&usg=AOvVaw1qTi8oyM2hvD24Od3Fzg6W. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.

———————————————————————————————————— Peter Uetz Center for Biological Data Science (formerly Center for the Study of Biological Complexity) Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, VA 23284 USA

Reptile Database (http://www.reptile-database.org) http://uetz.info

[mdoering]

@camiplata @DianRHR maybe this is sth you could write up at some point?

[camiplata]

The tutorial has a description of what is checklistbank, we can reuse it:

ChecklistBank is a platform that supports the publication, analysis, and curation of checklists with emphasis in taxonomic and nomenclatural data. It is an integral part of the infrastructure developed and maintained by the Catalogue of Life (COL) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

ChecklistBank includes all checklists that form the Catalogue of Life, which are primarily global species lists provided by specific taxonomic communities. However, there are many other sources and uses for taxonomic checklists, such as national or local species lists, lists that share a common attribute such as red lists or invasive species lists, or lists that summarize taxonomic publications. Through ChecklistBank, we facilitate the discovery, use and citation of these valuable resources.

ChecklistBank is provided as a fundamental tool to ensure that basic data on species names and classifications can be shared and reused in support of the biological sciences and wider societal uses.

We can start with this for the first versión of the about page and keep on building over it