Making sure your observations are shared to GBIF
We are over 4,150 Research Grade observations now - and more observations coming in all the time!
Our aim here is to share wild flowering plant observations with the scientific community through GBIF.org (the Global Biodiversity Information Facility), where they are brought together with other location records from databases around the world.
This happens when (i) the observation is Research Grade (wild plant, identification agreed upon by by two iNaturalist members, with location, photo and observation date).
AND (ii) the license of the observations permits automatic onward sharing by iNaturalist by GBIF. Only observations having CC0, CC BY, or CC BY-NC licenses will be shared with GBIF: see https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#GBIFdata
If you want to make sure this is happening, please visit your profile on the website and choose 'Edit account settings and profile' - its surprising how many users are not sharing their data this way. Thank you!
PS for more on the (separate) licensing of the photos that are attached to observations, see https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/48165-we-want-you-to-license-your-inaturalist-photos-before-april-15th
Comments
We need to make this issue more known, as this is not automatically arranged when setting up a profile, I guess...
I'm not sure - so long since I set up my profile that I don't know what the defaults are!
yeah, maybe that has changed... but anyway.. I do think there is a lot of observers who didn't placed a license on their data and pictures and that these data will be missed by GBIF...
I don1t know... My profile has been as CC by since the beginning, but I never found my occurrences in GBIF.org
@filipi - this is interesting. I tried the following approach and found records in GBIF for me but not for you. You have Research Grade observations that I think should have been sent over to GBIF if the license has always been CC-BY. I suggest bringing this up on the Forum: https://forum.inaturalist.org/
To search in GBIF by observer:
In the comments in a discussion on Flora of Russia*, @apseregin tells us how to search for observations submitted by you via iNat to GBIF. A summary: 1. Go to https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/search?publishing_org=28eb1a3f-1c15-4a95-931a-4af90ecb574d&advanced=1 - which filters for all iNat observations. 2. Find the filter "Recorded by" on the left and type in your name (not userid) as it appears on your iNaturalist profile (for me, this is "Lera Miles"). This shows the observations that have made it over to GBIF. A GBIF badge will also show on the observation on iNat, but with some delay.
*Flora of Russia thread (Google Translate worked well for me): https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-of-russia/journal/38846-obnovlen-massiv-dannyh-inaturalist-v-gbif-28-iyulya
also make sure you tick: Update existing observations with new license choices and Update existing foto's with new license choices.
@filipi_soares: followed up here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/gbif-connection-to-inaturalist/16822/9 - suggest checking again in a couple of weeks to see if its working now the observation licenses were all updated.
My settings were as suggested (CC BY-NC), but I still don't see my research-grade observations in GBIF - is there some other issue that prevents the transfer?
Hi John - looking at just a couple of examples, (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/67320684 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/53484371 ) - your copyright is set to "all rights reserved"
Oh thanks. When went to edit my profile it was set to cc by-nc. Is there a way to go and change it for each of these entries? Thanks again!
also make sure you tick: Update existing observations with new license choices and Update existing foto's with new license choices.
i just saw it did changed from all rights reserved to some rights reserved.. so i think it worked!
off course, for seeing these observations in GBIF, they need to be research grade :)
I'm a new user and this piece of text contributed to my confusion over separate licenses for photos and observations, specifically this: "AND (ii) the license of the observations and photos permits automatic onward sharing by iNaturalist by GBIF". I believe this makes it sound as if photo license influenced whether the observation makes it into GBIF while, in fact, only the observation license matters for the purpose you state in the headline: "Making sure your observations are shared to GBIF".
I suggest to clarify this in your text.
Hi @alesbucek - I believe you are right. My mistake! For a description of data sent over to GBIF -
https://www.gbif.org/dataset/50c9509d-22c7-4a22-a47d-8c48425ef4a7#description
PS a big Welcome to iNaturalist!
@lera Thanks! I'm very excited - not sure how I managed to live without iNaturalist for all the years - I love the platform.
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