Movebank download: rename fields and add "same as:"

[peterdesmet]

@sarahcd, when downloading data from Movebank (to upload them to Zenodo), I noticed that some fields are not named after the recommended attribute in the Movebank Attribute Dictionary. I listed them below.

Why not always use the recommended attribute name in the download headers? Note, I'm not counting differences between hyphen-notation and non hyphen notation for attribute names (which seem to be used interchangeably).

download file	header in data	recommended attribute	remark
ref data	deploy on date	deploy on timestamp	mentioned in same as
ref data	deploy off date	deploy off timestamp	mentioned in same as
ref data	tag serial no	tag serial number	mentioned in same as
gps data	bar:barometric height	barometric height	mentioned in same as
gps data	bar:barometric pressure	barometric pressure	mentioned in same as
gps data	gps:dop	GPS DOP	not mentioned in same as or alternative label
gps data	gps:satellite count	GPS satellite count	not mentioned in same as or alternative label
gps data	gps:vdop	GPS VDOP	not mentioned in same as or alternative label
gps data	external temperature	temperature external	not mentioned in same as. It is mentioned as alternative label at http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/MVB/current/MVB000104/
gps data	height above msl	height above mean sea level	mentioned in same as
gps data	individual taxon canonical name	animal taxon	mentioned in same as, confusing that it is correctly named animal taxon in ref data
gps data	tag local identifier	tag ID	mentioned in same as, confusing that it is correctly named tag id in ref data
gps data	individual local identifier	animal ID	mentioned in same as, confusing that it is correctly named tag id in ref data

[peterdesmet]

@sarahcd, summary after seeing NERC vocab:

1. gps:dop, gps:satellite count and gps:vdop should be added as same as in https://www.movebank.org/node/2381 and alternative label at http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/MVB/current/
2. external temperature should be updated at https://www.movebank.org/node/2381
3. It is confusing that the names tag id, animal id and animal taxon are not used in the data export, while they are in the reference data export

[peterdesmet]

And also:

4. tag serial no (NERC) is named tag serial number at https://www.movebank.org/node/2381. Probably good if it was added as an alternative label?

[sarahcd]

Thanks, I'll look more closely at your recommendations as we plan some updates for term consistency across the API, data downloads and GUI. A few notes:

• currently ":" is ignored in documenting attribute names in the same way that "-" is ignored.
• in some cases usage that is not ideal (like animal-id = individual-local-identifier) is basically grandfathered in because it dates back to the beginning of the database, and now other tools/packages have been developed to work with them like they are.
• in other cases (like height-above-msl and height-above-mean-sea-level) a shorter name is preferred in files while a longer name is preferred in the gui to help make sure users find, understand and use attributes correctly.

[peterdesmet]

Hi @sarahcd, hope you're doing well. I'll be closing this issue, as it is something for on Movebank's side. It will remain here for future reference.