Data Management Plan: Brazil's Virtual Herbarium

Dora Ann Lange Canhos

doi:10.3897/rio.3.e14675

Abstract

The goal of the Brazil Virtual Herbarium is to facilitate the identification of taxonomic and geographic information gaps of plants and fungi of Brazil. The system displays the status of online data for all valid species in the List of Species of the Brazilian Flora, including those without any record. The system also compares the Brazilian states where specialists indicate that the species occurs with the states that have occurrence points in Brazil's Virtual Herbarium, highlighting the gaps. This data management plan was prepared as part of a pilot project run on behalf of the International Development Research Centre (Canada) on data management policy for development funders (https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.2.e8880).

Highlights

BVH uses the speciesLink network as its information system, an aggregator of species occurrence records
Most data providers are herbaria from Brazil and abroad that collect, preserve, and document the occurrence of specimens in nature, but some datasets refer to observations and not collection of specimens
Herbaria from abroad are contributing with data of samples collected in Brazil

Summary

Data Collection

BVH uses the speciesLink network as its information system, an aggregator of species occurrence records. Most data providers are herbaria from Brazil and abroad that collect, preserve, and document the occurrence of specimens in nature, but some datasets refer to Canhos D observations and not collection of specimens. Herbaria from abroad are contributing with data of samples collected in Brazil. What was collected/observed (species name and who identified the specimen, date identified);. Data records may be incomplete, as one of the aims of BVH is to help herbaria in improving data quality. Images of the specimen (voucher or live) associated to the textual record may be available as a separate file.

What file formats will your data be collected in?

Documentation and Metadata

Storage and Backup

Sharing and Reuse

Responsibilities and Resources

Ethics and Legal Compliance