Citing data that is not being downloaded

Hello Everyone!
I am working on a project initiative that is making use of PyGBIF to access the occurrences API. With that being said, I am not downloading the actual data and just using it temporarily.

Concisely:

  1. I am accessing the occurrence.search() method to fetch 10-15 observations at a geographical latitude-longitude.
  2. I am also accessing the media associated with these results.
  3. However, I am not saving it anywhere and instead just using the fetched results to do one time processing.

Do I still need to cite the content that I am accessing?
If so, what are the guidelines for the same?

Thanks,
Muiz

Hi Muiz,

The GBIF Data user agreement applies no matter how you access the data. This means that if you are publishing your results you must

  • …publicly acknowledge, following the scientific convention of citing sources in conjunction with the use of the data, the Data Publishers whose biodiversity data they have used, where appropriate through use of a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) applying to the dataset (s) and/or data downloads.

The easist way for you to comply with this is to ensure that you retain the identifying columns of the observations (e.g. gbifId, datasetKey, etc.) so that you may properly cite them. You can then summarize the entire set of used observations using a derived dataset.

Let me know if you have any further questions!

/Daniel

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Sure!
I will keep this in mind while moving forward

Thanks,
Muiz

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