Arthur David Chapman

Australian Biodiversity Information Services ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1700-6962

In the fifty years since I became a scientist, there have been many changes in the way we work, in the tools we use, in the software we have available to us and much more. But our motivation to “Do what we do” hasn’t really changed at all. A survey carried out many years ago in Brazil asked biologists why they became biologists. Answers included go...

GeoPick is a new web application aimed at providing a simple yet powerful georeferencing tool to the natural history collections community (Fig. 1). Its conceptual foundation is based on the Georeferencing Best Practices by Chapman and Wieczorek (2020), whose guidelines it intends to implement. GeoPick also provides a close and direct relation betw...

ECO92, a United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, hosted by Brazil in 1992 was a catalyst for much activity on biodiversity in the State of São Paulo and eventually led to the establishment of BIOTA-FAPESP. BIOTA-FAPESP quickly evolved into a world-leading research program that has broadened to cover all aspects of biodiversity in...

speciesLink is a large-scale biodiversity information portal that exists thanks to a broad collaborative network of people and institutions. CRIA's involvement with the scientific community of Brazil and other countries is responsible for the significant results achieved, currently reaching more than 15 million primary biodiversity data records, 95...

Data Quality Task Group 2 was established to create a suite of core tests and associated assertions about the 'quality' of biodiversity informatics data (Chapman et al. 2020). The group has been active since January 2017, about four years longer than its four main members would have anticipated. We all thought “How hard could it be?” The answer was...

Names are essential for communication. In biodiversity we have a nomenclature system that has stood the test of time (around 270 years) and, despite some shortcomings, it works. However, the world has changed. Extinction rates have increased rapidly in recent times and are rising at ever increasing rates due to climate change and human neglect. As...

Natural history collections (NHCs) represent an enormous and largely untapped wealth of information on the Earth's biota, made available through GBIF as digital preserved specimen records. Precise knowledge of where the specimens were collected is paramount to rigorous ecological studies, especially in the field of species distribution modelling. H...

Presentation to the Australian and New Zealand Data Quality Interest Group on Data Quality and data Quality Standards in Biodiversity. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=notU8i-x00o Slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QDZ71YT60O5mZxI5_JguaAMzWnDS0ZPz/view

Throughout this session our panellists look to explore the interrelationship between the occupants of the Earth: humanity and nature. What are the critical issues facing the world’s fauna, flora and humans? Amidst diminishing resources, how do we all share the planet sustainably? Featured Panellists: • Nina Jensen, CEO REV Ocean. • Professor Jamal...

Full texts are openly available at the given doi in PDF or HTML format. Published in English and Spanish. This publication provides guidelines to the best practice for georeferencing. Though it is targeted specifically at biological occurrence data, the concepts and methods presented here can be applied in other disciplines where spatial interpret...

Note: For those requesting full texts, it is openly available at the given doi in PDF or HTML format. Published in English and Spanish. This is a practical guide for georeferencing. It describes the protocols to determine the shapes of features and how to use them as the basis for georeferencing with the point-radius georeferencing method (Wieczor...

Natural history collections constitute an enormous wealth of information of Life on Earth. It is estimated that over 2 billion specimens are preserved at institutions worldwide, of which less than 10% are accessible via biodiversity data aggregators such as GBIF. Moreover, they are a very important resource for eco‐evolutionary research, which grea...

Full texts are openly available at the given doi in PDF or HTML format. Published in English, French and Spanish. In Current Best Practices for Generalizing Sensitive Species Occurrence Data, Australian botanist and biodiversity informatics expert Arthur D. Chapman offers a comprehensive update of the guide he co-authored in 2008. The "sensitive...

Motivation Other than data availability, ‘Data Quality’ is probably the most significant issue for users of biodiversity data and this is especially so for the research community. Data Quality Tests and Assertions Task Group (TG-2) from the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Biodiversity Quality Interest Group is reviewing practical aspects...

To understand biological and geological events and the history of collected samples, it is essential to determine and communicate location information accurately. The accuracy of a georeference depends upon the circumstances of the event. Historical collections depend on having clear verbatim locality descriptions, the correct interpretation of dat...

An introduction on how collection characteristics may affect georeference quality, both from a perspective on the information associated to them and the georeferencing processes used to put their specimens onto a map. In order to assess this, a workable definition of quality is needed. These were summarized under the workable and generalizable conc...

The quality of biodiversity data publicly accessible via aggregators such as GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility), the ALA (Atlas of Living Australia), iDigBio (Integrated Digitized Biocollections), and OBIS (Ocean Biogeographic Information System) is often questioned, especially by the research community. The Data Quality Interest Group...

Description and specifications for the tests following the conventions of the Fitness For Use Framework. This supplement is a copy of https://github.com/tdwg/bdq/blob/master/tg2/core/TG2_tests.csv as of commit 941e774 2019-Aug-20. Supplementary Material 1 to Chapman AD, Belbin L, Zermoglio PF, Wieczorek J, Morris PJ, Nicholls M, Rees ER, Veiga AK,...

Vocabulary of Terms used for the TDWG Task Group on Data Quality Tests and Assertions, plus key additional terms from the Use Case Study. Ther terms are consistent with the terms used in the Fitness for Use Framework (Veiga et al. 2017). Supplementary Material 1 to Chapman AD, Belbin L, Zermoglio PF, Wieczorek J, Morris PJ, Nicholls M, Rees ER, Vei...

To improve the suitability of the Darwin Core standard for the research and management of alien species, the standard needs to express the native status of organisms, how well established they are and how they came to occupy a location. To facilitate this, we propose: 1. To adopt a controlled vocabulary for the existing Darwin Core term dwc:establi...

‘Data Quality Test and Assertions’ Task Group 2 (https://www.tdwg.org/community/bdq/tg-2/) has taken another year to clarify the 102 tests (https://github.com/tdwg/bdq/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3ATest). The original mandate to develop a core suite of tests that could be widely applied from data collection to user evaluation of aggregated...

Data Quality: Tests and Assertions. Powerpoint Presentation to the SANBI-GBIF Training Course: Fitness for Use of Biodiversity Data. 27-29 November 2018. Kirstenbosch, South Africa. South African Biodiversity National Biodiversity Institute.

Collaborative Science - it makes a difference. Powerpoint Presentation to the SANBI-GBIF Training Course: Fitness for Use of Biodiversity Data. 27-29 November 2018. Kirstenbosch, South Africa. South African Biodiversity National Biodiversity Institute.

The quality of biodiversity data is an on-going issue. Early efforts to improve quality go back at least 4 decades, but it has never risen to the level of importance that it should have. For far too long the push to database more and more data regardless of its quality has taken priority. So I pose the question - what is the use of having lots of d...

Task Group 2 of the TDWG Data Quality Interest Group aims to provide a standard suite of tests and resulting assertions that can assist with filtering occurrence records for as many applications as possible. Currently ‘data aggregators’ such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and iDigBio run...

Building on centuries of research based on herbarium specimens gathered through time and around the globe, a new era of discovery, synthesis, and prediction using digitized collections data has begun. This paper provides an overview of how aggregated, open access botanical and associated biological, environmental, and ecological data sets, from gen...

A vimeo on Core Tests and Assertions developed by the TDWG Data Quality Interest Group's Task Group on Tests and Assertions by biological specimen data. Chapter 8 in a series. https://vimeo.com/239698443

The increasing availability of digitized biodiversity data worldwide, provided by an increasing number of institutions and researchers, and the growing use of those data for a variety of purposes have raised concerns related to the "fitness for use" of such data and the impact of data quality (DQ) on the outcomes of analyses, reports, and decisions...

First of three online presentations on the History of Biodiversity Informatics on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5_y6o9GVVs

Biodiversity Data Quality: An Overview. A Powerpoint Presentation to the FAPESP Conference - Biodiversity Data Quality Symposium: Developing a Common Framework to Improve Fitness for Use of Biodiversity Data (http://www.fapesp.br/eventos/2016/03/gbif/Arthur.pdf)

Portuguese Translation of Chapman (2005) Principles of Data Quality Chapman, A. D. (2015). Princípios de Qualidade de Dados. Versão 1.0 pt em Português lançada em abril 2015 e traduzida para pelo Nó Português do GBIF (www.gbif.pt) e pelo representante brasileiro do GBIF, SiBBr (Sistema de Informação sobre a Biodiversidade Brasileira, www.sibbr.gov...

This is a Japanese Translation of "Chapman AD & Grafton O 2008. Guide to Best Practices for Generalizing Sensitive Species-Occurrence Data, version 1.0. Copenhagen: Global Biodiversity Information Facility, 27 pp. ISBN: 87-92020-06-2. https://www.gbif.org/document/80512" Translated by GBIF Japan.

Power Point presentation on using Citizen Science to advance Biodiversity Informatics - prepared for a Data Quality, Data Cleaning and Data Validation Course for the South African Biodiversity Information Facility 14-15 July 2012.

Training Manual on Data Quality, Data Cleaning and Data Validation prepared for a Training Workshop for the South African Biodiversity Information Facility held in Cape Town, South Africa on 14-15 July 2012.

Recently we have seen the development of large on-line image databases that are being linked to important on-line sites such as the Encyclopedia of Life, the Atlas of Living Australia, Wikipedia in its various forms, the Biodiversity Heritage Library and many others. One such database is the EOL Flickr Site (http://www.flickr.com/groups/806927@N20/...

French Translation of Chapman (2005). Principles and Methods of Data Cleaning Primary Species Occurrence Data. Translated by Roosen, A. (avec la collaboration du Theeten, F et Chenin, E.) (https://www.gbif.org/document/80677/principes-et-methodes-de-nettoyage-de-donnees)

French Translation of Chapman and Wieczorek (2006) Guide to Best Practices for Georeferencing Downloadable from: https://www.gbif.org/document/80655

French Translation of Chapman (2005) Uses of Primary Species-Occurrence Data (Translated by Nathalie Chenin) (https://www.gbif.org/document/80596/les-usages-des-donnees-primaires-doccurrence-despeces)

French Translation of Chapman (2005) Principles of Data Quality. (http://www.gbif.org/document/80596)

The Special Committee on Electronic Publication was re-established at the XVII International Botanical Congress (IBC) in Vienna in 2005, with the mandate to consider on the issues relating to the electronic publication of nomenclatural novelties and to report to the XVIII IBC in Melbourne in 2011. With the global push to inventory biodiversity and...

The Special Committee on Electronic Publication was re‐established at the XVII International Botanical Congress (IBC) in Vienna in 2005, with the mandate to consider on the issues relating to the electronic publication of nomenclatural novelties and to report to the XVIII IBC in Melbourne in 2011. With the global push to inventory biodiversity and...

At the International Botanical Congress in Vienna in 2005, a Committee was re‐established to examine the issue of the electronic publication of plant names and to submit proposals to alter the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature at the next Congress to be held in Melbourne, Australia in 2011. The Committee is now finalising its deliberatio...

This document is for training courses on Data Quality, Data Cleaning and Data Validation Techniques for French, Dutch and Belgian data providers run by the GBIF Nodes in The Netherlands (NLBIF), France (GBIF France) and Belgium (BeBIF). The first training event is being conducted in Paris (1-2 July 2010), then Brussels (5-6 July 2010), and finally...

Introductory Power Point presentation covering the Principles of Data Quality prepared for a Training Course on Data Quality given in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, in July, 2010.

Introductory Power Point presentation on Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Data Quality prepared for training courses in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam in July 2010.

Power Point presentation on Bioclimatic Modelling using MAXENT prepared for training courses in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam in July 2010.

Power Point presentation on Georeferencing prepared for training courses in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam in July 2010.

Power Point presentation on Bioclimatic Modelling using BIOCLIM prepared for training courses in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam in July 2010.

Power Point presentation on clean Spatial Species Data prepared for training courses in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam in July 2010.

In order to tackle the task of identifying and documenting the World’s Biodiversity, we first need to know the dimensions of the task. How many species are there? Where are they distributed geographically? In what environments and ecosystems do they occur? And how are they distributed through the various kingdoms? A recent study in Australia attemp...

A training Exercise on species distribution modelling using the GIS Software Diva-GIS and the modelling software BIOCLIM.

A training course exercise in species distribution modelling using the software MAXENT

Estimates of the total number of species in the world vary from 5 million to over 50 million (May 1998). In this report figures of close to 11 million species worldwide and about 570,000 for Australia are accepted. Numbers for accepted published species in the world are given here as close to 1,900,000 and 147,579 for Australia. https://www.environ...

The expansion of the Internet and the move towards distributed database systems provides many challengers to data managers over the coming decades. It is only just 15 years since the World Wide Web began – and back then, none of us had GPS’s, mobile phones, PDAs, and other tools we now take for granted, and many of us, not even email. Also – there...

Power Point presentation in Common Chinese covering the Principles of Data Quality prepared for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation Techniques and Species-Occurrence Modelling, Training Course for TaiBIF, 18-20 Feb. 2009. Taipei, Tawan. Translation by staff at TaiBIF (2009).

Power Point presentation in Common Chinese covering the Cleaning Spatial species occurrence data, prepared for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation Techniques and Species-Occurrence Modelling, Training Course for TaiBIF, 18-20 Feb. 2009. Taipei, Tawan. Translation by staff at TaiBIF (2009)

Power Point presentation in Common Chinese covering the Georeferencing of species occurrence data prepared prepared for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation Techniques and Species-Occurrence Modelling, Training Course for TaiBIF, 18-20 Feb. 2009. Taipei, Tawan. Translation by staff at TaiBIF (2009).

Power Point presentation in Common Chinese covering Data Cleaning of Taxonomic and Nomenclatural data prepared for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation Techniques and Species-Occurrence Modelling, Training Course for TaiBIF, 18-20 Feb. 2009. Taipei, Tawan. Translation by staff at TaiBIF (2009).

Power Point presentation in Common Chinese covering the Species Distribution and bioclimatic modelling using a number of software prepared for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation Techniques and Species-Occurrence Modelling, Training Course for TaiBIF, 18-20 Feb. 2009. Taipei, Tawan. Translation by staff at TaiBIF (2009)

Power Point presentation in Common Chinese on Dealing with Sensitive Species-occurrence Data prepared for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation Techniques and Species-Occurrence Modelling, Training Course for TaiBIF, 18-20 Feb. 2009. Taipei, Tawan. Translation by staff at TaiBIF (2009)

Training Manual on Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation Techniques & Species-Occurrence Modelling prepared for Training Course for TaiBIF, 18-20 Feb. 2009. Taipei, Tawan.

Power Point presentation in Common Chinese covering Bioclimatic Species Distribution Modelling using the software, MAXENT, prepared for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation Techniques and Species-Occurrence Modelling, Training Course for TaiBIF, 18-20 Feb. 2009. Taipei, Tawan. Translation by staff at TaiBIF (2009)

A survey conducted for the Global Biodiversity Information Facility identified that as many as 64% of data providers surveyed were generalising sensitive biological data in some way. How those data were generalized varied greatly and there was little documentation to inform users that the data had been generalised and if so, how. Following on from...

GBIF has been concerned about the unprotected distribution of sensitive primary species occurrence data (for example the exact localities of rare, endangered or commercially valuable taxa) since its launch. This document reviews current approaches for obscuring or generalising such data, with a set of recommendations to guide data holders to develo...

French Translation of Chapman AD & Grafton O 2008. Guide to Best Practices for Generalising Primary Species Occurrence Data, version 1.0. Copenhagen: Global Biodiversity Information Facility. 27 pp. ISBN: 87-92020-06-2

Definition and discussion on the term "Direction"and it is use in GIS

Definition and discussion of the term "Precision"and its use in GIS

Definition and discussion of the term "Distance" and its use in GIS

Definition and discussion of the term "Automated Georeferencing" and its use in GIS

Korean Translation of Chapman (2005) Principles of Data Quality. Published by KISTI(Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information) Printed in Republic of Korea https://assets.ctfassets.net/uo17ejk9rkwj/4HMDrLd58IMCumw4iew88m/87370435f3e3c7aeee59d364aa58b105/Principles_20of_20Data_20Quality_20-_20KOREAN.pdf. [See http://www.gbif.org/News/NEW...

Power Point Presentation on the Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Data Quality prepared for training course: "In-situ Conservation of Crop Wild Relatives through Enhanced Management and Field Application", Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 3-9 November 2007. Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology, Tashkent and Bioversity International, Rome. Translated...

Power Point Presentation on Georeferencing prepared for training course: "In-situ Conservation of Crop Wild Relatives through Enhanced Management and Field Application", Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 3-9 November 2007. Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology, Tashkent and Bioversity International, Rome. Translated by Svetlana Kim.

Power Point Presentation on Bioclimatic Species Distribution Modelling and using BIOCLIM prepared for training course: "In-situ Conservation of Crop Wild Relatives through Enhanced Management and Field Application", Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 3-9 November 2007. Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology, Tashkent and Bioversity International,...

Power Point Presentation on the Cleaning Spatial Data prepared for training course: "In-situ Conservation of Crop Wild Relatives through Enhanced Management and Field Application", Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 3-9 November 2007. Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology, Tashkent and Bioversity International, Rome. Translated by Svetlana Kim.

Power Point Presentation on Species Distribution Modelling using Maxent prepared for training course: "In-situ Conservation of Crop Wild Relatives through Enhanced Management and Field Application", Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 3-9 November 2007. Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology, Tashkent and Bioversity International, Rome. Translated...

Power Point Presentation on the Principles of Data Quality prepared for training course: "In-situ Conservation of Crop Wild Relatives through Enhanced Management and Field Application", Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 3-9 November 2007. Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology, Tashkent and Bioversity International, Rome. Translated by Svetlana K...

Evaluation of the Technical Aspects of the Project, including International Information Management system and National Information Management systems

Manuel de formation Cours destinés aux Participants du Projet CWR. (Training Manual on Data Quality, Data Cleaning and Data Validation for Participants in the Crop Wild Relatives Project, 20-24 August 2007. Antananarivo, Madagascar. Organised by : Bioversity International, Centre National de Recherche Appliquée au Développment Rural (FOFIFA) and Of...

Principios de la calidad de los datos. (Principles of Data Quality) Powerpoint in Spanish for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation, and Species-Occurrence Modelling Training Course. Cochabamba, Bolivia 4-8 June 2007 organised by Bioversity International & El Vice Ministerio de Biodiversidad, Recursos Forestales y Medio Ambiente.

Principios de Calidad de los Datos - Datos taxonómicos y de la nomenclatura (Principles of Data Quality. Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Data). Powerpoint in Spanish for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation, and Species-Occurrence Modelling Training Course. Cochabamba, Bolivia 4-8 June 2007 organised by Bioversity International & El Vice Minist...

Georeferenciación de las colecciones & Determinación de incertidumbre (Georeferencing Collections and Determining Uncertainty). Powerpoint in Spanish for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation, and Species-Occurrence Modelling Training Course. Cochabamba, Bolivia 4-8 June 2007 organised by Bioversity International & El Vice Ministerio de Biod...

Limpieza de los Datos Espaciales Datos de Ocurrencia de las Especies (Spatial Data Cleaning for Species-Occurrences). Powerpoint in Spanish for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation, and Species-Occurrence Modelling Training Course. Cochabamba, Bolivia 4-8 June 2007 organised by Bioversity International & El Vice Ministerio de Biodiversidad,...

Modelización de ocurrencia de especies & BIOCLIM (Species Occurrence Modelling and BIOCLIM). Powerpoint in Spanish for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation, and Species-Occurrence Modelling Training Course. Cochabamba, Bolivia 4-8 June 2007 organised by Bioversity International & El Vice Ministerio de Biodiversidad, Recursos Forestales y Me...

Modelización de ocurrencia de especies utilizando Maxent (Species Distribution Modelling using MAXENT). Powerpoint in Spanish for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation, and Species-Occurrence Modelling Training Course. Cochabamba, Bolivia 4-8 June 2007 organised by Bioversity International & El Vice Ministerio de Biodiversidad, Recursos Fore...

Calidad de datos Depuración de datos & Técnicas de validación de datos. Manual de capacitación de cursos para Participantes del Proyecto Parientes Silvestres. Powerpoint in Spanish for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation, and Species-Occurrence Modelling Training Course. Cochabamba, Bolivia 4-8 June 2007 organised by Bioversity Internation...

Guías en Desarrollo para Tratar Datos de Frecuencia de Especies Sensibles (Guidelines for Dealing with Sensitive Species Data).Powerpoint in Spanish for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation, and Species-Occurrence Modelling Training Course. Cochabamba, Bolivia 4-8 June 2007 organised by Bioversity International & El Vice Ministerio de Biodi...

Evaluación de la Conservación & Selección de la Reserva (Conservation and Reserve Selection Methodologies). Powerpoint in Spanish for Data Quality, Data Cleaning, Data Validation, and Species-Occurrence Modelling Training Course. Cochabamba, Bolivia 4-8 June 2007 organised by Bioversity International & El Vice Ministerio de Biodiversidad, Recursos...

This report reviews current approaches, discusses options and makes recommendations to GBIF, data providers, users of data, and to TDWG on a range of issues associated with dealing with sensitive primary species occurrence data. Principle among those are methods of generalizing information so that key information is still made available, while hidi...

Korean Translation of Chapman (2005) Principles and Methods of Data Cleaning Primary Species Occurrence Data (https://www.gbif.org/document/80543/-a-guide-in-korean-to-principles-and-methods-of-data-cleaning-for-primary-species-and-species-occurrence-data)

Korean Translation of Chapman (2005). Uses of Primary Species Occurrence Data (https://www.gbif.org/document/80514/-a-booklet-describing-the-uses-of-primary-species-occurrence-data-in-korean)

The value of georeferenced biodiversity data to end users is greatly increased if these data include appropriate measures of the level of uncertainty for each georeference. (See: Chapman, A.D. & J. Wieczorek, eds., Guide to Best Practices for Georeferencing, GBIF, Copenhagen, 2006). Such measures of uncertainty help users to determine how fit the d...

The number of known species has been estimated by collating information from systematists, taxonomic literature, on-line resources and previous compilations. Although many scientifi c names are synonyms (thus there being more than one name applied to a species) the numbers of valid species for well-reviewed and familiar groups can be calculated wit...

This paper introduces the concept of “Outlierness” is the degree to which a record is an outlier using the Reverse Jackknifing method.

This document summarises responses to the “Questionnaire on Dealing with Sensitive Primary Species Data” conducted on behalf of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility between 1 March and 1 April 2006, using Surveymonkey.com.

One of the outputs from the BioGeomancer project is a document on best practice for georeferencing biological species (specimen and observational) data. Several projects (MaNIS, MapSteDI, INRAM, GEOLocate, NatureServe, CRIA, ERIN, CONABIO, etc.) have previously developed guidelines and tools for georeferencing, and these provide a good starting poi...

This paper describes BioGeomancer and the tools that are used for checking the data quality