The Biodiversity Literature Repository — Open By Design

The Open Definition version 2.1 prescribes four conditions for openness of a work –

1. it must be published under an open license or be in the public domain,
2. it must be accessible easily and at no more than the cost of reproduction, preferably be downloadable via the internet
3. it must be readily readable by a computer, and
4. it must be available in an open format.

It is clear that openness is not just a matter of sticking an open license. Openness has to be a fundamental goal and part of the design. This becomes all the more important for complicated endeavors such as scientific data that need to exist in a stable form far into the future (“forever”). At Plazi we have been extracting data from biodiversity literature and making it FAIR and open for more than a decade. To do this, we have built (or helped build) the tools, the procedures, the repositories, the standards, and the partnerships to extract, clean, archive and disseminate data for perpetuity. In this presentation we will share our experience building a lasting research infrastructure that is open by design.