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"Data ownership" is actually an oxymoron, because there could not be a copyright (ownership) on facts or ideas, hence no data onwership rights and law exist. The term refers to various kinds of data protection instruments: Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) (mostly copyright) asserted to indicate some kind of data ownership, confidentiality clauses/rules, database right protection (in the European Union only), or personal data protection (GDPR) (Scassa 2018). Data protection is often realised via different mechanisms of "data hoarding", that is witholding access to data for various reasons (Sieber 1989). Data hoarding, however, does not put the data into someone's ownership. Nonetheless, the access to and the re-use of data, and biodiversuty data in particular, is hampered by technical, economic, sociological, legal and other factors, although there should be no formal legal provisions related to copyright that may prevent anyone who needs to use them (Egloff et al. 2014, Egloff et al. 2017, see also the Bouchout Declaration). One of the best ways to provide access to data is to publish these so that the data creators and holders are credited for their efforts. As one of the pioneers in biodiversity data publishing, Pensoft has adopted a multiple-approach data publishing model, resulting in the ARPHA-BioDiv toolbox and in extensive Strategies and Guidelines for Publishing of Biodiversity Data (Penev et al. 2017a, Penev et al. 2017b). ARPHA-BioDiv consists of several data publishing workflows: Deposition of underlying data in an external repository and/or its publication as supplementary file(s) to the related article which are then linked and/or cited in-tex. Supplementary files are published under their own DOIs to increase citability). Description of data in data papers after they have been deposited in trusted repositories and/or as supplementary files; the systme allows for data papers to be submitted both as plain text or converted into manuscripts from Ecological Metadata Language (EML) metadata. Import of structured data into the article text from tables or via web services and their susequent download/distribution from the published article as part of the integrated narrative and data publishing workflow realised by the Biodiversity Data Journal. Publication of data in structured, semanticaly enriched, full-text XMLs where data elements are machine-readable and easy-to-harvest. Extraction of Linked Open Data (LOD) from literature, which is then converted into interoperable RDF triples (in accordance with the OpenBiodiv-O ontology) (Senderov et al. 2018) and stored in the OpenBiodiv Biodiversity Knowledge Graph In combination with text and data mining (TDM) technologies for legacy literature (PDF) developed by Plazi, these approaches show different angles to the future of biodiversity data publishing and, lay the foundations of an entire data publishing ecosystem in the field, while also supplying FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) data to several interoperable overarching infrastructures, such as Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Biodiversity Literature Repository (BLR), Plazi TreatmentBank, OpenBiodiv, as well as to various end users.

"Data ownership" is actually an oxymoron, because there could not be a copyright (ownership) on facts or ideas, hence no data onwership rights and law exist. The term refers to various kinds of data protection instruments: Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) (mostly copyright) asserted to indicate some kind of data ownership, confidentiality clauses/rules, database right protection (in the European Union only), or personal data protection (GDPR) (Scassa 2018). Data protection is often realised via different mechanisms of "data hoarding", that is witholding access to data for various reasons (Sieber 1989). Data hoarding, however, does not put the data into someone's ownership. Nonetheless, the access to and the re-use of data, and biodiversuty data in particular, is hampered by technical, economic, sociological, legal and other factors, although there should be no formal legal provisions related to copyright that may prevent anyone who needs to use them (Egloff et al. 2014, Egloff et al. 2017, see also the Bouchout Declaration). One of the best ways to provide access to data is to publish these so that the data creators and holders are credited for their efforts. As one of the pioneers in biodiversity data publishing, Pensoft has adopted a multiple-approach data publishing model, resulting in the ARPHA-BioDiv toolbox and in extensive Strategies and Guidelines for Publishing of Biodiversity Data (Penev et al. 2017a, Penev et al. 2017b). ARPHA-BioDiv consists of several data publishing workflows: Deposition of underlying data in an external repository and/or its publication as supplementary file(s) to the related article which are then linked and/or cited in-tex. Supplementary files are published under their own DOIs to increase citability). Description of data in data papers after they have been deposited in trusted repositories and/or as supplementary files; the systme allows for data papers to be submitted both as plain text or converted into manuscripts from Ecological Metadata Language (EML) metadata. Import of ...

The open access publishing model led to dramatic changes in the way scientists communicate their results. Open access also challenged the traditional business models of academic publishers that have been maintained for hundreds of years. Open access to article content, however, soon appeared insufficient as far as access to underlying data was concerned. Opening research data came as the logical second stage of this challenge which was soon put on the agenda of scientific communities, funding organisations and governments. Open data, by itself, raised the question how we can re-use data and reproduce research results, how transparent is the peer-review and, more generally, how scientific evaluation is being performed. Over time, these and other similar developments morphed into what we now call "open science" or, in more general terms, transforming research into a primarily collaborative rather than a primarily competitive endeavour. The present lecture summarises the key milestones of the movement from open access through open data to open science from the viewpoint of an academic publisher. It is also illustrated by the ARPHA Biodiversity Data Publishing and Dissemination Toolbox (ARPHA-BioDiv) which is a set of standards, guidelines, tools, workflows and journals, developed by Pensoft within its ARPHA Journal Publishing Platform. The history of development of ARPHA-BioDiv largely resembles the evolution of the open access to open science which started with the pre-publication semantic markup of important domain-specific terms and relationships between them, as implemented in 2010 by the ZooKeys open access journal and then followed by others, for example: PhytoKeys, MycoKeys, Nature Conservation, NeoBiota, Journal of Hymenoptera Research, Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift, Zoosystematics and Evolution. The next stage of integrated narrative and open data publishing was pioneered in 2013 by the Biodiversity Data Journal and its associated authoring tool, the ARPHA Writing Tool (AWT), launched as the first ...

Illegal transfer of wildlife has 2 main purposes: trade and scientific research. Trade is the most common, whereas scientific research is much less common and unprofitable, yet still important. Biopiracy in science is often neglected despite that many researchers encounter it during their careers. The use of illegally acquired specimens is detected in different research fields, from scientists bioprospecting for new pharmacological substances, to taxonomists working on natural history collections, to researchers working in zoos, aquariums, and botanical gardens. The practice can be due to a lack of knowledge about the permit requirements in different countries or, probably most often, to the generally high level of bureaucracy associated with rule compliance. Significant regulatory filters to avoid biopiracy can be provided by different stakeholders. Natural history collection hosts should adopt strict codes of conduct; editors of scientific publications should require authors to declare that all studied specimens were acquired legally and to cite museum catalog numbers as guarantee of best practices. Scientific societies should actively encourage publication in peer-reviewed journals of work in which specimens collected from the wild were used. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature could require newly designated types based on recently collected specimens to be accompanied by statements of deposition in recognized scientific or educational institutions. We also propose the creation of an online platform that gathers information about environmental regulations and permits required for scientific activities in different countries and respective responsible governmental agencies and the simplification of the bureaucracy related to regulating scientific activities. This would make regulations more agile and easier to comply with. The global biodiversity crisis means data need to be collected ever faster, but biopiracy is not the answer and undermines the credibility of science and researchers. It is critical to find amodus vivendithat promotes compliance with regulations and scientific progress.

Illegal transfer of wildlife has 2 main purposes: trade and scientific research. Trade is the most common, whereas scientific research is much less common and unprofitable, yet still important. Biopiracy in science is often neglected despite that many researchers encounter it during their careers. The use of illegally acquired specimens is detected in different research fields, from scientists bioprospecting for new pharmacological substances, to taxonomists working on natural history collections, to researchers working in zoos, aquariums, and botanical gardens. The practice can be due to a lack of knowledge about the permit requirements in different countries or, probably most often, to the generally high level of bureaucracy associated with rule compliance. Significant regulatory filters to avoid biopiracy can be provided by different stakeholders. Natural history collection hosts should adopt strict codes of conduct; editors of scientific publications should require authors to declare that all studied specimens were acquired legally and to cite museum catalog numbers as guarantee of best practices. Scientific societies should actively encourage publication in peer-reviewed journals of work in which specimens collected from the wild were used. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature could require newly designated types based on recently collected specimens to be accompanied by statements of deposition in recognized scientific or educational institutions. We also propose the creation of an online platform that gathers information about environmental regulations and permits required for scientific activities in different countries and respective responsible governmental agencies and the simplification of the bureaucracy related to regulating scientific activities. This would make regulations more agile and easier to comply with. The global biodiversity crisis means data need to be collected ever faster, but biopiracy is not the answer and undermines the credibility of science and researchers. It is critical to find amodus vivendithat promotes compliance with regulations and scientific progress. ; Peer reviewed

The Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management System (OBKMS) is an end-to-end, eXtensible Markup Language (XML)- and Linked Open Data (LOD)-based ecosystem of tools and services that encompasses the entire process of authoring, submission, review, publication, dissemination, and archiving of biodiversity literature, as well as the text mining of published biodiversity literature (Fig. 1). These capabilities lead to the creation of interoperable, computable, and reusable biodiversity data with provenance linking facts to publications. OBKMS is the result of a joint endeavour by Plazi and Pensoft lasting many years. The system was developed with the support of several biodiversity informatics projects - initially (Virtual Biodiversity Research and Access Network for Taxonomy) ViBRANT, and then followed by pro-iBiosphere, European Biodiversity Observation Network (EU BON), and Biosystematics, informatics and genomics of the big 4 insect groups (BIG4). The system includes the following key components: ARPHA Journal Publishing Platform: a journal publishing platform based on the TaxPub XML extension for National Library of Medicine (NLM)'s Journal Publishing Document Type Definition (DTD) (Version 3.0). Its advanced ARPHA-BioDiv component deals with integrated biodiversity data and narrative publishing (Penev et al. 2017). GoldenGATE Imagine: an environment for marking up, enhancing, and extracting text and data from PDF files, supporting the TaxonX XML schema. It has specific enhancements for articles containing descriptions of taxa ("taxonomic treatments") in the field of biological systematics, but its core features may be used for general purposes as well. Biodiversity Literature repository (BLR): a public repository hosted at Zenodo (CERN) for published articles (PDF and XML) and images extracted from articles. Ocellus/Zenodeo: a search interface for the images stored at BLR. TreatmentBank: an XML-based repository for taxonomic treatments and data therein extracted from literature. The OpenBiodiv knowledge graph: a biodiversity knowledge graph built according to the Linked Open Data (LOD) principles. Uses the RDF data model, the SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language (SPARQL) query language, is open to the public, and is powered by the OpenBiodiv-O ontology (Senderov et al. 2018). OpenBiodiv portal: Semantic search and browser for the biodiversity knowledge graph. Multiple semantic apps packaging specific views of the biodiviersity knowledge graph. Supporting tools: Pensoft Markup Tool (PMT) ARPHA Writing Tool (AWT) ReFindit R libraries for working with RDF and for converting XML to RDF (ropenbio, RDF4R). Plazi RDF converter, web services and APIs. As part of OBKMS, Plazi and Pensoft offer the following services beyond supplying the software toolkit: Digitization through imaging and text capture of paper-based or digitally born (PDF) legacy literature. XML markup of both legacy and newly published literature (journals and books). Data extraction and markup of taxonomic names, literature references, taxonomic treatments and organism occurrence records. Export and storage of text, images, and structured data in data repositories. Linking and semantic enhancement of text and data, bibliographic references, taxonomic treatments, illustrations, organism occurrences and organism traits. Re-packaging of extracted information into new, user-demanded outputs via semantic apps at the OpenBiodiv portal. Re-publishing of legacy literature (e.g., Flora, Fauna, and Mycota series, important biodiversity monographs, etc.). Semantic open access publishing (including data publishing) of journal and books. Integration of biodiversity information from legacy and newly published literature into interoperable biodiversity repositories and platforms (Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), Species-ID, Plazi, Wikidata, and others). In this presentation we make the case for why OpenBiodiv is an essential tool for advancing biodiversity science. Our argument is that through OpenBiodiv, biodiversity science makes a step towards the ideals of open science (Senderov and Penev 2016). Furthermore, by linking data from various silos, OpenBiodiv allows for the discovery of hidden facts. A particular example of how OpenBiodiv can advance biodiversity science is demonstrated by the OpenBiodiv's solution to "taxonomic anarchy" (Garnett and Christidis 2017). "Taxonomic anarchy" is a term coined by Garnett and Christidis to denote the instability of taxonomic names as symbols for taxonomic meaning. They propose an "authoritarian" top-down approach to stablize the naming of species. OpenBiodiv, on the other hand, relies on taxonomic concepts as integrative units and therefore integration can occur through alignment of taxonomic concepts via Region Connection Calculus (RCC-5) (Franz and Peet 2009). The alignment is "democratically" created by the users of system but no consensus is forced and "anarchy" is avoided by using unambiguous taxonomic concept labels (Franz et al. 2016) in addition to Linnean names.

The present paper describes policies and guidelines for scholarly publishing of biodiversity and biodiversity-related data, elaborated and updated during the Framework Program 7 EU BON project, on the basis of an earlier version published on Pensoft's website in 2011. The document discusses some general concepts, including a definition of datasets, incentives to publish data and licenses for data publishing. Further, it defines and compares several routes for data publishing, namely as (1) supplementary files to research articles, which may be made available directly by the publisher, or (2) published in a specialized open data repository with a link to it from the research article, or (3) as a data paper, i.e., a specific, stand-alone publication describing a particular dataset or a collection of datasets, or (4) integrated narrative and data publishing through online import/download of data into/from manuscripts, as provided by the Biodiversity Data Journal. The paper also contains detailed instructions on how to prepare and peer review data intended for publication, listed under the Guidelines for Authors and Reviewers, respectively. Special attention is given to existing standards, protocols and tools to facilitate data publishing, such as the Integrated Publishing Toolkit of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF IPT) and the DarwinCore Archive (DwC-A). A separate section describes most leading data hosting/indexing infrastructures and repositories for biodiversity and ecological data.

This paper discusses the design and implementation of a citizen science pilot project, COMBER (Citizens' Network for the Observation of Marine BiodivERsity, http://www.comber.hcmr.gr), which has been initiated under the ViBRANT EU e-infrastructure. It is designed and implemented for divers and snorkelers who are interested in participating in marine biodiversity citizen science projects. It shows the necessity of engaging the broader community in the marine biodiversity monitoring and research projects, networks and initiatives. It analyses the stakeholders, the industry and the relevant markets involved in diving activities and their potential to sustain these activities. The principles, including data policy and rewards for the participating divers through their own data, upon which this project is based are thoroughly discussed. The results of the users analysis and lessons learned so far are presented. Future plans include promotion, links with citizen science web developments, data publishing tools, and development of new scientific hypotheses to be tested by the data collected so far.

This paper discusses the design and implementation of a citizen science pilot project, COMBER (Citizens' Network for the Observation of Marine BiodivERsity, http://www.comber.hcmr.gr), which has been initiated under the ViBRANT EU e-infrastructure. It is designed and implemented for divers and snorkelers who are interested in participating in marine biodiversity citizen science projects. It shows the necessity of engaging the broader community in the marine biodiversity monitoring and research projects, networks and initiatives. It analyses the stakeholders, the industry and the relevant markets involved in diving activities and their potential to sustain these activities. The principles, including data policy and rewards for the participating divers through their own data, upon which this project is based are thoroughly discussed. The results of the users analysis and lessons learned so far are presented. Future plans include promotion, links with citizen science web developments, data publishing tools, and development of new scientific hypotheses to be tested by the data collected so far.

Biodiversity is threatened on a global scale and the losses are ongoing. In order to stop further losses and maintain important ecosystem services, programmes have been put into place to reduce and ideally halt these processes. A whole suite of different approaches is needed to meet these goals. One major scientific contribution is to collate, integrate and analyse the large amounts of fragmented and diverse biodiversity data to determine the current status and trends of biodiversity in order to inform the relevant decision makers. To contribute towards the achievement of these challenging tasks, the project EU BON was developed. The project is focusing mainly on the European continent but contributes at the same time to a much wider global initiative the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), which itself is a part of the Group of Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). EU BON will build on existing infrastructures such as GBIF, LifeWatch and national biodiversity data centres in Europe and will integrate relevant biodiversity data from on-ground observations to remote sensing information, covering terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats.A key feature of EU BON will be the delivery of relevant, fully integrated data to multiple and different stakeholders and end users ranging from local to global levels. Through development and application of new standards and protocols, EU BON will enable greater interoperability of different data layers and systems, provide access to improved analytical tools and services, and will provide better harmonized biodiversity recording and monitoring schemes from citizen science efforts to long-term research programs to mainstream future data collecting. Furthermore EU BON will support biodiversity science-policy interfaces, and facilitate political decisions for sound environmental management, also to help conserve biodiversity for human well-being at different levels, ranging from communal park management to the Intergovernmental Platform ...

Biodiversity is threatened on a global scale and the losses are ongoing. In order to stop further losses and maintain important ecosystem services, programmes have been put into place to reduce and ideally halt these processes. A whole suite of different approaches is needed to meet these goals. One major scientific contribution is to collate, integrate and analyse the large amounts of fragmented and diverse biodiversity data to determine the current status and trends of biodiversity in order to inform the relevant decision makers. To contribute towards the achievement of these challenging tasks, the project EU BON was developed. The project is focusing mainly on the European continent but contributes at the same time to a much wider global initiative the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), which itself is a part of the Group of Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). EU BON will build on existing infrastructures such as GBIF, LifeWatch and national biodiversity data centres in Europe and will integrate relevant biodiversity data from on-ground observations to remote sensing information, covering terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats.A key feature of EU BON will be the delivery of relevant, fully integrated data to multiple and different stakeholders and end users ranging from local to global levels. Through development and application of new standards and protocols, EU BON will enable greater interoperability of different data layers and systems, provide access to improved analytical tools and services, and will provide better harmonized biodiversity recording and monitoring schemes from citizen science efforts to long-term research programs to mainstream future data collecting. Furthermore EU BON will support biodiversity science-policy interfaces, and facilitate political decisions for sound environmental management, also to help conserve biodiversity for human well-being at different levels, ranging from communal park management to the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Additionally, the project will strengthen European capacities and infrastructures for environmental information management and sustainable development. The following paper outlines the framework and the approach that is pursued.

Fauna Europaea is Europe's main zoological taxonomic index, making the scientific names and distributions of all living, currently known, multicellular, European land and freshwater animals species integrally available in one authoritative database. Fauna Europaea covers about 260,000 taxon names, including 145,000 accepted (sub)species, assembled by a large network of (>400) leading specialists, using advanced electronic tools for data collations with data quality assured through sophisticated validation routines. Fauna Europaea started in 2000 as an EC funded FP5 project and provides a unique taxonomic reference for many user-groups such as scientists, governments, industries, nature conservation communities and educational programs. Fauna Europaea was formally accepted as an INSPIRE standard for Europe, as part of the European Taxonomic Backbone established in PESI. Fauna Europaea provides a public web portal at faunaeur.org with links to other key biodiversity services, is installed as a taxonomic backbone in wide range of biodiversity services and actively contributes to biodiversity informatics innovations in various initiatives and EC programs.

Fauna Europaea is Europe's main zoological taxonomic index, making the scientific names and distributions of all living, currently known, multicellular, European land and freshwater animals species integrally available in one authoritative database. Fauna Europaea covers about 260,000 taxon names, including 145,000 accepted (sub)species, assembled by a large network of (>400) leading specialists, using advanced electronic tools for data collations with data quality assured through sophisticated validation routines. Fauna Europaea started in 2000 as an EC funded FP5 project and provides a unique taxonomic reference for many user-groups such as scientists, governments, industries, nature conservation communities and educational programs. Fauna Europaea was formally accepted as an INSPIRE standard for Europe, as part of the European Taxonomic Backbone established in PESI.Fauna Europaea provides a public web portal at faunaeur.org with links to other key biodiversity services, is installed as a taxonomic backbone in wide range of biodiversity services and actively contributes to biodiversity informatics innovations in various initiatives and EC programs.

BiCIKL is an European Union Horizon 2020 project that will initiate and build a new European starting community of key research infrastructures, establishing open science practices in the domain of biodiversity through provision of access to data, associated tools and services at each separate stage of and along the entire research cycle. BiCIKL will provide new methods and workflows for an integrated access to harvesting, liberating, linking, accessing and re-using of subarticle-level data (specimens, material citations, samples, sequences, taxonomic names, taxonomic treatments, figures, tables) extracted from literature. BiCIKL will provide for the first time access and tools for seamless linking and usage tracking of data along the line: specimens > sequences > species > analytics > publications > biodiversity knowledge graph > re-use.

Abstract Fauna Europaea is Europe's main zoological taxonomic index, making the scientific names and distributions of all living, currently known, multicellular, European land and freshwater animals species integrally available in one authoritative database. Fauna Europaea covers about 260,000 taxon names, including 145,000 accepted (sub)species, assembled by a large network of (>400) leading specialists, using advanced electronic tools for data collations with data quality assured through sophisticated validation routines. Fauna Europaea started in 2000 as an EC funded FP5 project and provides a unique taxonomic reference for many user-groups such as scientists, governments, industries, nature conservation communities and educational programs. Fauna Europaea was formally accepted as an INSPIRE standard for Europe, as part of the European Taxonomic Backbone established in PESI. Fauna Europaea provides a public web portal at faunaeur.org with links to other key biodiversity services, is installed as a taxonomic backbone in wide range of biodiversity services and actively contributes to biodiversity informatics innovations in various initiatives and EC programs.