The GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) is a web based tool that enables scientists and technicians to publish and register their content through the GBIF network and has been released for early adoptors.

Through the uploading of text files or connection to an existing database, the IPT enables the publication of taxonomic checklists and primary biodiversity occurrence data in a standard format (the Darwin Core standard).  Additionally, the IPT allows scientists to describe the nature of datasets by authoring dataset metadata in accord with the GBIF Metadata Profile (based on the Ecological Metadata Language).  Institutions may share single installations of an IPT to enable "hosting" services for other institutions; the IPT respects institutional ownership allowing the content to be attributed accordingly to the custodians.  The IPT data formats are flexible, and thematic groups can define and register extensions and vocabularies to help standardise content being published that will be available to all IPT users.  With the IPT, data holders can share more content types than previously possible, while supplying the necessary metadata to help scientists using the content shared through GBIF better determine if the dataset is of use to them.

Following the release, GBIF are focusing on supporting deployments and expect to announce IPT training workshops for later in 2011.

This new version of the IPT will be officially launched in October 2011 at the 18th GBIF Governing Board Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  The GBIF Secretariat will work closely with the Nodes Strategy Group and key IPT users to ensure that a comprehensive uptake plan is ready for the IPT v2.0 launch.  This plan will include a technology transition guide, a training programme, final user manuals and technical documentation, an expert network and a distributed helpdesk.

More information on the IPT can be found in http://www.gbif.org/informatics/infrastructure/publishing/ and http://www.gbif.org/index.php?id=751.