ViBRANT recognised the need for a bibliography of life, i.e. a freely accessible bibliography of every taxonomic paper ever published. None of the currently available aggregators were satisfactory, so we have chosen to extend the Plazi bibliographic tool, RefBank. There are two primary reasons for this choice, first the original developer, Guido Sautter, is a partner in ViBRANT and second, RefBank contains a parsing tool that will turn Rod Page's "cryptic text strings" into structured references that can be easily transformed into any of the other conventional forms (see the Data Format Report). The bulk of RefBank's growth to date has come from ViBRANT contributed references, with 80,000 references being accumulated in the first six months of operation and another 85,000 references in the second six months. Work continues within ViBRANT to extract bibliographies from published works and parse them to generate more references. This work is to ensure that RefBank is seeded with sufficient references at launch so as to engage users. There was a significant development for RefBank in Autumn 2012 when it was the subject of a presentation and demonstration at TDWG 2013. Since when we have seen the addition of community contributed references. A more formal launch of RefBank, probably in conjunction with related ViBRANT developed tools, is planned for Summer/Autumn 2013. (http://vbrant.eu/content/communal-literature) ... [Miscellaneous as indicated]
The NCBI taxonomy database contains the names of all organisms that are represented in the genetic databases with at least one nucleotide or protein sequence. Click on the tree if you want to browse the taxonomic structure or retrieve sequence data for a particular group of organisms." (...) "The NCBI taxonomy database is not a primary source for taxonomic or phylogenetic information. Furthermore, the database does not follow a single taxonomic treatise but rather attempts to incorporate phylogenetic and taxonomic knowledge from a variety of sources, including the published literature, web-based databases, and the advice of sequence submitters and outside taxonomy experts. Consequently, the NCBI taxonomy database is not a phylogenetic or taxonomic authority and should not be cited as such. ... [Information of the supplier]
BioNET is an international not-for-profit initiative dedicated to promoting taxonomy, especially in the biodiversity rich but economically poorer countries of the world. Working via local partnerships (LOOPs), BioNET strives to provide a forum for collaboration that is equally open to all taxonomists and to the other users of taxonomy. Working with partners locally and internationally, our work contributes to raising awareness of the importance of taxonomy to society, building and sharing of capacity, and meeting taxonomic needs via innovative tools and approaches. ... [Information of the supplier]
The DELTA format (DEscription Language for TAxonomy) is a flexible method for encoding taxonomic descriptions for computer processing. It has been adopted by the International Taxonomic Databases Working Group (TDWG) as a standard for data exchange. DELTA-format data can be used to produce natural-language descriptions, conventional or interactive keys, cladistic or phenetic classifications, and information-retrieval systems. ... [Information of the supplier]
Der schleichende und unbemerkte Verlust an Arten von Tieren, Pflanzen und anderen Organismen durch Umweltzerstörung, Übernutzung, invasive Arten und mangelnde Wertschätzung ist eine globale Katastrophe. Um den Verlust überhaupt bemerken zu können, bedarf es zunächst einer genauen Kenntnis der noch vorhandenen Vielfalt. Genaue Kenntnis kann Schutz- und Nutzungsoptionen eröffnen. Das zuständige biologische Fachgebiet ist die Taxonomie. Es besteht jedoch ein Engpass an taxonomischer Expertise; zu konstatieren ist das Fehlen von ausreichenden taxonomischen Kapazitäten und Kompetenzen, d.h. von Referenz- und Forschungssammlungen, frei zugänglichen Datenbanken mit relevanten Informationen und vor allem von ausgebildeten Fachleuten, also von Taxonomen. Als Folge der Verpflichtungen, die Deutschland mit der Ratifizierung der Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) im Jahre 1993 einging, ist der Staat verantwortlich für einen gut ausgebauten Forschungsbereich der Fachgebiete Taxonomie und Systematik. Die Unterstützung dieses Bereiches ist somit als eine nationale Aufgabe zu betrachten. Starke und bedeutende Stiftungsprofessuren an herausragenden Universitäten sind erforderlich, um eine den neuen Anforderungen gewachsene Taxonomie in die Ausbildung der Studenten einzubringen und damit in ausreichendem Maße aktiven und vorwärtsstrebenden Nachwuchs für dieses Fachgebiet zu rekrutieren. ... [Information des Anbieters, verändert]
NOBIS Austria ist ein Netzwerk für Wissenschafter, die in der biologischen Systematik in all ihren Facetten - Evolutionsforschung, Phylogenie und Taxonomie - theoretisch, philosophisch und pragmatisch tätig sind. NOBIS Austria hat zum Ziel, die Biosystematik in allen Reichen der Organismen als Grundlage zahlreicher theoretischer und angewandter biologischer Fachgebiete zu vermitteln. NOBIS Austria fördert die biologische Systematik in Österreich und verbindet nationale und internationale Aktivitäten miteinander. NOBIS Austria ist Forum für interdisziplinäre Kommunikation und Sprachrohr gegenüber Meinungsbildnern, Politikern, Administratoren und möglichen Sponsoren. ... [Information des Anbieters]
Welcome to SYNTHESYS: the European Union-funded Integrated Infrastructure Initiative grant. This five year project which began in February 2004, comprises 20 European natural history museums and botanic gardens, aims to create an integrated European infrastructure for researchers in the natural sciences. SYNTHESYS is split into two activities: Access and Networking Activities. ... [Information of the supplier]
This site merges the book A Guide to Field Guides: Identifying the Natural History of North America by Diane Schmidt, Biology Librarian at the University of Illinois, and its companion Web site International Field Guides. After the publisher returned copyright to the book, the author decided to combine the two products and create a searchable database of field guides for plants, animals, and other objects in North America and around the world. Except where noted, all guides listed here were personally examined by the author. As used in this site, a field guide is a small, lightweight book used to identify plants, animals, or other objects. It is designed to be used outdoors and usually contains many illustrations, whether drawings or photographs, and limited text. Generally speaking, field guides are used by amateurs, hence the emphasis on visual identification. There are a number of different technical manuals, atlases, floras and faunas, handbooks, and keys for the use of professionals which are not listed here. ... [Information of the supplier]
The Global Names Index is the first component of a semantic environment for biology called the Global Names Architecture GNA). GNI has been developed by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the Encyclopedia of Life. It has benefited from the ideas of an array of gifted and enthusiastic individuals who contributed through the Nomina workshops that they attended. GNI was developed because of the central importance of the names of organisms in the management of data about organisms. The primary users of this site are not people, but other machines, so please don’t complain because the site is boring. ... [Information of the supplier]
ViBRANT is a European Union FP7 funded project starting in December 2010 that will support the development of virtual research communities involved in biodiversity science. Our goal is to provide a more integrated and effective framework for those managing biodiversity data on the Web. ViBRANT provides: (1) A virtual research environment (Scratchpads) where users can safely store, share and manage their research information; (2) Analytical services for users to build identification keys and phylogenetic trees; (3) A publication platform for users to automatically compile biodiversity science manuscripts from their research database; (4) A portal for users to centrally access publicly accessible biodiversity research information and literature; (5) Training, helping research communities to use these tools and services; (6) A standards compliant technical architecture that can be sustained by biodiversity research community. ... [Information of the supplier]