basisOfRecord vs. preparations

[pzermoglio]

(These questions were posed during the second chapter of the DwC Hour, 7 Mar 2017).

Do we need a subcategory for basisOfRecord to capture the type of Physical Specimen? or is it that the values that we are seeing in basisOfRecord go in preparations?

Some answers were:

• SPNHC and others are evaluating the need for understanding how "Preparations" are used and whether or not it would be useful to propose as a full-fledged DwC extension.

[dagendresen]

I vote +1 for minting a new term to describe the sub-category of basisOfRecord to capture the sub-type of Occurrence, PreservedSpecimen, LivingSpecimen, etc. And for different and often community and sub-domain specific controlled value vocabularies to be expected/accepted here.

[ekrimmel]

Comments from DwC Hour #12:

Paula Zermoglio: for dwc:preparations it is suggested to use a controlled vocabulary, what would be the advantage of having a new term instead of building a vocabulary for a term that already exists? I mean, the free text you mention is more a matter of misuse of the term...no?

Gabi Droege (Botanic Garden Berlin): Re preparations: The variety of tissue/DNA material is too big and we want to keep it free text. It's easier to simply add another term. So BasisOfRecord is controlled vocabulary. PreparationType is freetext. materialSampleType is free text, but we recommend to use our proposed terms (tissue, specimen, DNA)

[dagendresen]

One advantage of a new free-text basisOfRecord sub-type is to support and allow for communication of thematic-community-specific "type of material" while keeping basisOfRecord values stick to a mandatory controlled value vocabulary.

Use case from the plant genetic resources community, one of the most important classification of a preserved specimen (e.g. genebank accession) is the Biological status type (MCPD:SAMPSTAT) following the controlled vocabulary: wild (100) | natural (110) | semiNaturalWild (120) | semiNaturalSown (130) | weedy (200) | landrace (300) | breedingResearchMaterial (400) | breedersLine (410) | syntheticPopulation (411) | hybrid (412) | founderStock (413) | inbredLine (414) | segregatingPopulation (415) | clonalSelection (416) | geneticStock (420) | mutant (421) | cytogeneticStock (422) otherGeneticStock (423) | advancedCultivar (500) | GMO (600) | otherBiologicalStatus (999)

These type of material classifications are, as you can see, not related to preparation of the specimen - but to the genetic origin, and thus when a cultivated origin, the type of cultivation history.

My guess is that many other thematic communities have similar controlled vocabularies that are important to THEM, and that could be communicated in a new (?) free-text sub-type term in Darwin Core (?).