Science Publishing for the MySpace Generation Vincent S. Smith MySpecies & the Encyclopedia of Life

Biodiversity Science The foundation for all biological disciplines Mission… Inventory the Earths species Understand their relationships Create predictive information systems from these data Data set… 1.8M described species (10M names) 300M pages (over last 250 years) 1.5-3B specimens Staff… 4-6,000 scientists 30-40,000 amateurs Many more citizen scientists?

Biodiversity Science The foundation for all biological disciplines 250 yr progress report… Up to 87% of life on Earth is still undescribed 6% of biodiversity scientists cover 80% of the worlds biodiversity At present rates most species will be extinct long before we describe them

Biodiversity Science The foundation for all biological disciplines 250 yr progress report… Up to 87% of life on Earth is still undescribed 6% of biodiversity scientists cover 80% of the worlds biodiversity At present rates most species will be extinct long before we describe them Problems… Communities working on biodiversity are highly distributed & fragmented So are the data they publish The publication process for biodiversity data is broken Most biodiversity (data) is hidden

Paper Minds The bottleneck of traditional publication 1,000s of journals addressing a common set of questions What is a species? How many species are there? Where are species distributed? How have species distributions changed? How are species related? How have species characters changed? To what extent is are species relationships predictive? DATA

Paper Minds The bottleneck of traditional publication 1,000s of journals addressing a common set of questions Mol. Phyl. Evol. 21,964 pp. since 2000 Menopon gallinae Numidicola antennatus Amyrsidea ventralis Somaphantus lusius Menacanthus stramineus Colimenopon urocolius Trinoton anserinum Meromenopon meropis Gruimenopon longum Hoazineus armiferus Copocephalum zebra Comatomenopon elbeli/elongatum Psittacomenopon poicephalus Odoriphila clayae/phoeniculi Ardeiphilus trochioxus Cuculiphilus fasciatus Ciconiphilus quadripustulatus Eomenopon denticulatum Piagetiella bursaepelecani Osborniella crotophagae Hohorstiella lata Neomenopon pteroclurus Machaerilaemus laticorpus/latifrons Austromenopon crocatum Eidmanniella pellucida Holomenopon brevithoracicum Dennyus hirundinis Myrsidea victrix Ancistrona vagelli Pseudomenopon pilosum Bonomiella columbae Chapinia robusta Plegadiphilus threskiornis Actornithophilus uniseriatus MEGAMENOPON Rediella mirabilis Latumcephalum lesouefi/macropus Paraboopia flava Paraheterodoxus insignis Boopia tarsata Therodoxus oweni Laemobothrion maximum Ricinus fringillae Trochiliphagus abdominalis Trochiloecetes rupununi Liposcelis bostrychophilus What is a species? How many species are there? Where are species distributed? How have species distributions changed? How are species related? How have species characters changed? To what extent is are species relationships predictive?

Paper Minds The bottleneck of traditional publication 1,000s of journals addressing a common set of questions What is a species? How many species are there? Where are species distributed? How have species distributions changed? How are species related? How have species characters changed? To what extent is are species relationships predictive? Species Name The universal linker RAW DATA > Logically interconnected but presently fragmented by the publication process Other problems… Time & money Audience mismatch Findability & reusability

Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) The ultimate life list - Mitch Leslie, Science Nothing could possibly go wrong! A web page for every species Vision of EO Wilson $50m funding (5 years) - MacArthur and Sloan Foundations Megascience mashup - First draft 2008, complete 2018! Mass collaboration - Science & outreach

EOL Deja Vu A web page for every species Vision of EO Wilson Lots of money Megascience mashup Mass collaboration

EOL Content Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) Content managed by Since May 07: titles - 3,316 volumes - 1,302,530 pages The Internet Archive Digitizing the 10 largest Natural History libraries Since 1469: - 5.4M books - 800,000 monographs - 40,000 journal titles

EOL Content Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) Content managed by Since May 07: titles - 3,316 volumes - 1,302,530 pages The Internet Archive Digitizing the 10 largest Natural History libraries Since 1469: - 5.4M books - 800,000 monographs - 40,000 journal titles Are we digitizing the right stuff?

EOL Content Mickey mouse copyright laws C 1923

EOL Content Most published content cannot be legally digitized 1923 In Copyright DOI Publications on ants

EOL Content Most published content cannot be legally digitized DOI Publications on ants 1890 In Copyright (Europe)

Can EOL succeed - define success? RSS communityintegrative intuitive The potential of EOL can only be realized if we rethink publication licensable

MySpecies A prototype self publication tool for EOL? A community publication tool to intuitively create, manage and share biodiversity data on the web

MySpecies Multi-site CMS configuration A prototype self publication tool for EOL?

Added tools & services A prototype self publication tool for EOL? MySpecies

A prototype self publication tool for EOL? Automated site creation CC Licensing No content control * No branding Citable Help

MySpecies … & more Birds Bees Cockroaches Corals Dung beetles Fungus gnats Lice Milichiid flies Mosquitoes Nanofossils Polychaetes Solanaceae Supporting 22 communities of biologists & counting

MySpecies & its successors A new publishing model for biodiversity data? Traditional (filter > publish) Fractionally published Story telling Fragmented Low findability & reusability Branded Expensive Web (publish > filter) 100% published Smaller units of information Findable & reusable Meaningfully citable (data) Unbranded Cheap

MySpecies & its successors A new publishing model for biodiversity data? Traditional (filter > publish) Fractionally published Story telling Fragmented Low findability & reusability Branded Expensive Web (publish > filter) 100% published Smaller units of information Findable & reusable Meaningfully citable (data) Unbranded Cheap But, What about peer review!

MySpecies & Peer Review How can we provide quality assurance? Web (publish > filter) Data algorithmically checked Peer used or ignored Traditional (filter > publish) Data ignored / stories checked

MySpecies & Peer Review How can we provide quality assurance? Web (publish > filter) Data algorithmically checked Peer used or ignored Traditional (filter > publish) Data ignored / stories checked

Questions?