PLAZI Treatment Repository 
Willi Egloff & Donat Agosti 
RDA 4th Plenary 
CODATA Legal Interoperability IG 
Amsterdam, September 22, 2014
Plazi Treatment Repository 
Institutionalize access to treatments 
publications or (more frequently) sections of publications documenting the 
features or distribution of a related group of organisms (called a “taxon”, plural 
“taxa”) in ways adhering to highly formalized conventions. Some of these are over a 
century old. [Catapano, 2011] 
Each taxonomic name usage has a treatment 
>> 50 M treatments published: the knowledge of the world’s species
Plazi related publications
Treatment? 
structureed 
Treatment 
(1) 
1. Publication conversion workflow 
Journal run 
Atrticle 
Treatment 
Vendor - level 
General markup 
vendor 
scientist 
Scientist / crowd 
structured 
treatment (2) 
and data 
markup programs 
services 
Domain - level 
Domain specific 
markup 
Publication 
prospective legacy 
Taxpub (1) (zookeys) 
Taxpub (2) BDJ 
scripting scientist 
scientist 
crowd 
Work Data Work OpenAccess
1. Publication conversion workflow 
Extraction of treatments 
• Art. 19 CPA-CH (internal use) 
• § 50 II CPA-DK, art. 42 h CPA-S (extended collective 
license)? 
• „fair use“? 
• future copyright and database right exceptions for 
research purposes?
1. Publication conversion workflow 
«please give me the treatment of taxon X» 
no yes 
Treatment of taxon X? 
Get name 
Name present 
TreatCit present 
? 
Get treatment 
Treatment of taxon X 
yes 
yes 
AuthorY present 
TreatCit Treatment Citation (=BibRef+page#) 
BibRef Bibliographic Reference 
AuthorY Author and year of publication of a taxon 
yes 
Get treatCit 
PDF present 
? 
yes 
Extract treat Extract treatment 
? 
yes 
Enter name 
? 
Good Bye 
no 
no 
? 
yes 
BibRef present 
? 
yes 
PDF present 
? 
Get PDF 
yes 
yes 
Create TreatCit 
? 
yes 
TreatCit 
Find it externally 
no 
Find it externally 
no 
Add PDF to BLR 
no 
Good Bye 
no 
yes 
Right treatment? 
yes 
no 
no 
Good Bye 
no 
GNUB 
REFBANK SRS 
BLR (open 
/closed) 
DMA 
BLR Biodiversity Literature Repository 
DMA DocumentMain Archive 
GNUB Global Name Usage Bank 
RefBank Bibliographic Reference Database 
SRS Treatment Server
1. Publication conversion workflow 
Biodiversity Literature Repository 
• Open sector: 
• not copyrightable text and data 
• public domain documents 
• works, whose protection period is expired 
• works with CC0-waver or CC-BY-license 
• Closed sector: 
• sensitive data 
• copyright protected works (for internal use only)
2 Barriers 
Reasons for not opening up 
Financial interests of publishers 
Financial interests of scientific societies 
Concerns for third world scientists about costs of publishing 
Protecting competitive advantage 
Some of the data has been acquired under certain restrictive conditions 
Copyright has been transferred to a publisher 
Copyright owner unknown 
Risk adversity 
Misconceptions 
Copyright as a guarantee of citation 
Copyright as a sign of the quality of work 
I collected the data, therefore they are mine 
Tradition 
I never thought about it
3. Ongoing developments 
Bouchout Declaration 
Blue List 
Study of extensive collective licences for Switzerland
4. Stakeholder Involvement 
Signatories of the Bouchout Declaration 
Pro-iBiosphere project team members 
Collecting societies in Switzerland
5 Progress in implementing legal interoperability 
Under discussion in the followup process of the Bouchout Declaration
6 . The level of information about legal issues 
• Egloff W, Patterson D, Agosti D, Hagedorn G 2014. Open exchange of scientific 
knowledge and European copyright: The case of biodiversity information. 
ZooKeys 414, 109-135. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.414.7717 
• Egloff W, 2014. Access to scientific and technical information - between social 
needs and private interests. (English translation of: Egloff W, 2014. Der Zugang zu 
Fachinformationen – zwischen gesellschaftlicher Notwendigkeit und privatem 
Verwertungsinteresse In: Hansjürgen Garstka, Wolfgang Coy (Hg.), Wovon - für 
wen - wozu. Systemdenken wider die Diktatur der Daten, Helmholtz-Zentrum für 
Kulturtechnik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, S. 349-373, ISBN 978-3-86004-298- 
4. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10378 
• Patterson DJ, Egloff W, Agosti D, Eades D, Franz N, Hagedorn G, Rees J, Remsen DP 
2014. Scientific names of organisms: attribution, rights, and licensing . BMC 
Research Notes 2014, 7:79 doi:10.1186/1756-0500-7-79, 
• Agosti, D., W. Egloff. 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the 
Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53, doi:10.1186/1756-0500-2-53
Thanks! 
Willi Egloff & Donat Agosti 
Plazi 
info@plazi.org

20140922 rda codata_legal_ig_plazi_final

  • 1.
    PLAZI Treatment Repository Willi Egloff & Donat Agosti RDA 4th Plenary CODATA Legal Interoperability IG Amsterdam, September 22, 2014
  • 2.
    Plazi Treatment Repository Institutionalize access to treatments publications or (more frequently) sections of publications documenting the features or distribution of a related group of organisms (called a “taxon”, plural “taxa”) in ways adhering to highly formalized conventions. Some of these are over a century old. [Catapano, 2011] Each taxonomic name usage has a treatment >> 50 M treatments published: the knowledge of the world’s species
  • 3.
  • 4.
    Treatment? structureed Treatment (1) 1. Publication conversion workflow Journal run Atrticle Treatment Vendor - level General markup vendor scientist Scientist / crowd structured treatment (2) and data markup programs services Domain - level Domain specific markup Publication prospective legacy Taxpub (1) (zookeys) Taxpub (2) BDJ scripting scientist scientist crowd Work Data Work OpenAccess
  • 5.
    1. Publication conversionworkflow Extraction of treatments • Art. 19 CPA-CH (internal use) • § 50 II CPA-DK, art. 42 h CPA-S (extended collective license)? • „fair use“? • future copyright and database right exceptions for research purposes?
  • 6.
    1. Publication conversionworkflow «please give me the treatment of taxon X» no yes Treatment of taxon X? Get name Name present TreatCit present ? Get treatment Treatment of taxon X yes yes AuthorY present TreatCit Treatment Citation (=BibRef+page#) BibRef Bibliographic Reference AuthorY Author and year of publication of a taxon yes Get treatCit PDF present ? yes Extract treat Extract treatment ? yes Enter name ? Good Bye no no ? yes BibRef present ? yes PDF present ? Get PDF yes yes Create TreatCit ? yes TreatCit Find it externally no Find it externally no Add PDF to BLR no Good Bye no yes Right treatment? yes no no Good Bye no GNUB REFBANK SRS BLR (open /closed) DMA BLR Biodiversity Literature Repository DMA DocumentMain Archive GNUB Global Name Usage Bank RefBank Bibliographic Reference Database SRS Treatment Server
  • 7.
    1. Publication conversionworkflow Biodiversity Literature Repository • Open sector: • not copyrightable text and data • public domain documents • works, whose protection period is expired • works with CC0-waver or CC-BY-license • Closed sector: • sensitive data • copyright protected works (for internal use only)
  • 8.
    2 Barriers Reasonsfor not opening up Financial interests of publishers Financial interests of scientific societies Concerns for third world scientists about costs of publishing Protecting competitive advantage Some of the data has been acquired under certain restrictive conditions Copyright has been transferred to a publisher Copyright owner unknown Risk adversity Misconceptions Copyright as a guarantee of citation Copyright as a sign of the quality of work I collected the data, therefore they are mine Tradition I never thought about it
  • 9.
    3. Ongoing developments Bouchout Declaration Blue List Study of extensive collective licences for Switzerland
  • 10.
    4. Stakeholder Involvement Signatories of the Bouchout Declaration Pro-iBiosphere project team members Collecting societies in Switzerland
  • 11.
    5 Progress inimplementing legal interoperability Under discussion in the followup process of the Bouchout Declaration
  • 12.
    6 . Thelevel of information about legal issues • Egloff W, Patterson D, Agosti D, Hagedorn G 2014. Open exchange of scientific knowledge and European copyright: The case of biodiversity information. ZooKeys 414, 109-135. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.414.7717 • Egloff W, 2014. Access to scientific and technical information - between social needs and private interests. (English translation of: Egloff W, 2014. Der Zugang zu Fachinformationen – zwischen gesellschaftlicher Notwendigkeit und privatem Verwertungsinteresse In: Hansjürgen Garstka, Wolfgang Coy (Hg.), Wovon - für wen - wozu. Systemdenken wider die Diktatur der Daten, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, S. 349-373, ISBN 978-3-86004-298- 4. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10378 • Patterson DJ, Egloff W, Agosti D, Eades D, Franz N, Hagedorn G, Rees J, Remsen DP 2014. Scientific names of organisms: attribution, rights, and licensing . BMC Research Notes 2014, 7:79 doi:10.1186/1756-0500-7-79, • Agosti, D., W. Egloff. 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53, doi:10.1186/1756-0500-2-53
  • 13.
    Thanks! Willi Egloff& Donat Agosti Plazi info@plazi.org