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Controlled Vocabularies
- List of Darwin Core terms that recommend the use of controlled vocabularies
- Available Controlled Vocabularies
- Consequences of not using Controlled Vocabularies
Following is the list of Darwin Core terms that have recommendations to follow a controlled vocabulary.
Please note that some of the terms are associated with / linked to recommended resources (for example, ISO codes). For other terms, there are no exhaustive, comprehensive controlled vocabularies available. However, several efforts have been done to build controlled vocabularies. We, the community, have started the process of gathering those scattered sources (see below).
| Class | Term | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Record-level | dcterms:type | DCMI Type Vocabulary |
| dcterms:language | RFC 4646 | |
| basisOfRecord | Darwin Core classes | |
| Occurrence | sex | |
| lifeStage | ||
| reproductiveCondition | ||
| behavior | ||
| establishmentMeans | ||
| occurrenceStatus | ||
| disposition | ||
| Organism | organismScope | |
| Event | sampleSizeUnit | Ontology of Units of Measure |
| Location | higherGeographyID | Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names |
| continent | Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names | |
| waterbody | Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names | |
| islandGroup | Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names | |
| island | Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names | |
| country | Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names | |
| countryCode | ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 | |
| geodeticDatum | EPSG | |
| verbatimCoordinateSystem | ||
| verbatimSRS | EPSG | |
| georeferenceVerificationStatus | {'requires verification', 'verified by collector', or 'verified by curator' } | |
| Identification | identificationVerificationStatus | HISPID/ABCD |
| Taxon | taxonRank | |
| nomenclaturalCode | ||
| taxonomicStatus | ||
| MeasurementOrFact | measurementType | |
| measurementUnit | International System of Units (SI) | |
| ResourceRelationship | relationshipOfResource |
| Class | Term | Restriction |
|---|---|---|
| Record-level | dcterms:modified | ISO 8601:2004(E) <= now |
| Occurrence | individualCount | positive integer or 0 |
| Event | eventDate | ISO 8601:2004(E) <= now |
| eventTime | ISO 8601:2004(E) <= now | |
| startDayOfYear | positive integer <= 366 (or 365) | |
| endDayOfYear | positive integer <= 366 (or 365) | |
| year | integer <= current year | |
| month | positive integer <= 12 | |
| day | positive integer <= 31 (or 30, or 28) | |
| Location | decimalLatitude | real number between -90 and 90 inclusive |
| decimalLongitude | real number between -180 and 180 inclusive | |
| coordinateUncertaintyInMeters | real number > 0 | |
| coordinatePrecision | subset of positive real numbers> 0 | |
| pointRadiusSpatialFit | 0 or positive real number >= 1 | |
| footprintWKT | valid geometry in Well-known Text | |
| footprintSRS | valid SRS in Well-known Text | |
| footprintSpatialFit | 0 or positive real number >= 1 | |
| georeferencedDate | ISO 8601:2004(E) <= now | |
| Identification | dateIdentified | ISO 8601:2004(E) <= now |
| Taxon | namePublishedInYear | four-digit year |
| MeasurementOrFact | measurementDeterminedDate | ISO 8601:2004(E) <= now |
| ResourceRelationship | relationshipEstablishedDate | ISO 8601:2004(E) <= now |
So far, you can find a preliminary compilation of controlled vocabularies in this file: ControlledVocabs Resources.
That file is open for everyone to comment on, and we invite you to do so!
If you have a controlled vocabulary for any term in Darwin Core that recommends the use of a controlled vocabulary (see table below), please consider sharing it. To do so, you can:
a) post an issue in this GitHub repository.
b) send your message via the Darwin Core Hour Input Form. Don't forget to provide your email address so that we can get in contact.
The lack of adherence to controlled vocabularies cause the data to be highly heterogeneous, and therefore very difficult to find and use. We have compiled the actual values found in fields that recommend the use of controlled vocabularies from GBIF, VertNet and iDigBio, as a way to expose how messy data are and how difficult it is to deal with these data. You can take a look at those values HERE.