Fossil Record 21(1): 47-53, doi: 10.5194/fr-21-47-2018
History and development of ABCDEFG: a data standard for geosciences
expand article infoMareike Petersen‡, Falko Glöckler‡, Wolfgang Kiessling§, Markus Döring|, David Fichtmüller, Lertsutham Laphakorn‡, Brian Baltruschat‡, Jana Hoffmann‡
‡ Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstr. 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany§ GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Loewenichstr. 28, 91054 Erlangen, Germany| GBIF Secretariat, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark¶ Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Straße 6–8, 14195 Berlin, Germany
© Mareike Petersen, Falko Glöckler, Wolfgang Kiessling, Markus Döring, David Fichtmüller, Lertsutham Laphakorn, Brian Baltruschat, Jana Hoffmann.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Petersen M, Glöckler F, Kiessling W, Döring M, Fichtmüller D, Laphakorn L, Baltruschat B, Hoffmann J (2018) History and development of ABCDEFG: a data standard for geosciences. Fossil Record 21(1): 47-53. https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-21-47-2018
Open Access
Abstract
Museums and their collections have specially customized databases in orderto optimally gather and record their contents and associated metadataassociated with their specimens. To share, exchange, and publish data, anappropriate data standard is essential. ABCD (Access to BiologicalCollection Data) is a standard for biological collection units, includingliving and preserved specimen, together with field observation data. Itsextension, EFG (Extension for Geoscience), enables sharing and publishing datarelated to paleontological, mineralogical, and petrological objects. Thestandard is very granular and allows detailed descriptions, includinginformation about the collection event itself, the holding institution,stratigraphy, chemical analysis, and host rock. The standard extension was developed in 2006 and has been used since then by differentinitiatives and applied for the publication of collection-related data indomain-specific and interdisciplinary portals.