Bionomia

Bionomia (formerly Bloodhound Tracker) is a database and database entry tool which permits the name strings of collectors, and of taxonomists who determine specimen data, to be assigned to the unique person who collected or identified the specimen. If the person is living, this is done via their ORCID iD, and if dead, via their Wikidata identifier. It thereby resolves ambiguity where two or more collectors have similar names; or where one collector has worked under two names, or a single name written in two or more ways. The specimen data associated with, and used by, Bionomia are the aggregated GBIF data.

This mechanism of contributing to specimen data arose from a project initiated by the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Paris (MNHN) in March 2019, and is motivated (in part) by "the world-wide importance of natural history collections, (which) are at risk because they are critically underfunded or undervalued. A contributing factor for this apparent neglect is the lack of a professional reward system that quantifies and illustrates the breadth and depth of expertise required to collect and identify specimens, maintain them, digitize their labels, mobilize the data, and enhance these data as errors and omissions are identified by stakeholders." It is also motivated by the fact that the important work of taxonomists in identifying specimens in collections across the world fails to be recognised, and this failure, fails both institutions and taxonomists. In August 2018, Bionomia was launched (under the name Bloodhound Tracker) as a submission to the Ebbe Nielsen Challenge.

Other papers which set the scene, the rationale and the purpose of Bionomia are:

The primary task in Bionomia is to resolve the name strings of the various collectors and the taxonomists who have determined the species of a specimen into unique human beings. This having been done, the records of plant and animal specimens contained in GBIF downloads (permanently referenced by DOIs), together with the papers derived from them, and linked to the Bionomia people profiles. Hence, the taxonomic work fundamental to plant research can be tracked back to both the holding institution and to the taxonomist, linking institution, taxonomist, and the science generated.

Thus, Bionomia, by quantifying taxonomists' contributions, allows their work to be counted, not only in terms of specimen counts, but also in terms of counts of scientific papers. Provided by Wikipedia