GBIF has released a new technical document for community peer review. The guide, Best Practices for Managing and Publishing Camera Trap Data, is now open for input and feedback from community members until Tuesday, 31 October 2023.
The GBIF Secretariat commissioned Lien Reyserhove, Ben Norton and Peter Desmet to prepare the guide, which provides up-to-date guidelines focused on the management and publication of data from camera trap devices.
Camera traps have emerged as important tools for monitoring the state of biodiversity and natural ecosystems. The proliferation of data from such sensors has made data management, rather than data collection, the limiting factor in camera trap-related research. Responding to this and other recent community developments, this guide provides up-to-date guidelines that optimize data management and publication by anyone running a camera trap study—particularly data stewards, data publishers, database and information managers and students working with biodiversity informatics.
This release is the next in a series of digital documentation guides supported by GBIF. Feedback on the community peer-review process and the digital documentation programme—including suggestions on other topics we should consider covering—are always welcome via communication@gbif.org. Feedback that community members provide during this peer-review phase will further expand the list of contributors.
How do I participate in the community peer review?
Community members interested in contributing to this peer-review process can read the overview of the digital documentation programme to place their efforts in context, then review the specific instructions and expectations on how to offer suggestions and improvements.
To lend your voice and participate as a reviewer, we ask community members to:
- Create a GitHub account (see video how-to).
- Read the document, Best Practices for Managing and Publishing Camera Trap Data
- If you see something, say something, by creating or commenting on issues on GitHub (see video how-to)
- Start, follow and support discussions on the GBIF Community Forum
Please remember that all interactions within this process must adhere to the GBIF Code of Conduct, which aims to encourage a "safe, hospitable, and productive environment" that is "professional, respectful and harassment-free for all participating."
How can I learn about the release of other new documents?
Whether you subscribe to other GBIF lists or not, the best way to stay informed on the upcoming releases is to subscribe to GBIF's 'digital documentation' mailing list. You can also expect to see announcements on our social media channels.