Toward reliable biodiversity dataset references

Abstract

No systematic approach has yet been adopted to reliably reference and provide access to digital biodiversity datasets. Based on accumulated evidence, we argue that location-based identifiers such as URLs are not sufficient to ensure long-term data access. We introduce a method that uses dedicated data observatories to evaluate long-term URL reliability.From March 2019 through May 2020, we took periodic inventories of the data provided to major biodiversity aggregators, including GBIF, iDigBio, DataONE, and BHL by accessing the URL-based dataset references from which the aggregators retrieve data. Over the period of observation, we found that, for the URL-based dataset references available in each of the aggregators' data provider registries, 5% to 70% of URLs were intermittently or consistently unresponsive, 0% to 66% produced unstable content, and 20% to 75% became either unresponsive or unstable.We propose the use of cryptographic hashing to generate content-based identifiers that can reliably reference datasets. We show that content-based identifiers facilitate decentralized archival and reliable distribution of biodiversity datasets to enable long-term accessibility of the referenced datasets.