The aim of the tool is to provide data guidance that can broaden the participation in environmental monitoring, maximise the efficacy of volunteers in citizen science projects so they can contribute good quality marine evidence which is FAIR. Ensuring that data are findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable maximises their impact and increases their longevity, as data users can find and easily use these data for research and data-driven policy, both nationally and internationally.
Citizen science, for the purpose of this guide, is defined as the involvement of volunteers in science; they can be involved at any stage of the scientific process. The guide describes volunteer projects in the widest sense, as the guidance may also be relevant to other non-volunteer projects.
The guide is divided into 6 main stages composed of a series of activities to consider within each stage in order to produce high quality, FAIR data. Each stage provides a list of data management recommendations which may be used as a checklist. To find data guidelines for a particular stage of a project, click on the relevant circle in the data lifecyle and then select the activity you wish to learn more about. Alternatively, click on the corresponding coloured dot on the matrix in the "Activities" tab for the activity and stage you want to view.
This project was delivered by the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, in partnership with Natural England, and funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) through the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme.
Cite this resource: Data Team (Marine Biological Association) (2024): Citizen Science Best Practice Data Guidance. The Archive for Marine Species and Habitats Data (DASSH). (InteractiveResource). https://doi.org/10.4124/665dde070bc8c
Access to Biological Collection Data. A comprehensive standard for the access to and exchange of data about specimens and observations.
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Archaeology Data Service. A digital repository for UK archaeology and historic environment data, and a MEDIN historic environment DAC.
Application Programming Interface. A set of rules or protocols that let software applications communicate with each other to exchange data, features and functionality.
British Geological Survey. Geological survey and global geoscience organisation that provides geoscientific data, information and knowledge, and is a MEDIN geological DAC.
A communal citizen-science effort to record as many species within a designated location and time period as possible.
Biological Collection Access Service. A transnational network of primary biodiversity repositories. It links together specimen data from natural history collections, botanical/zoological gardens and research institutions worldwide with information from huge observation databases.
British Oceanographic Data Centre. MEDIN Oceanography DAC that looks after and distributes data concerning the marine environment.
Creative Commons license where credit must be given to the creator.
Creative Commons license where credit must be given to the creator and only non-commercial uses are permitted.
Creative Commons license where credit must be given to the creator and adaptations must be shared under the same terms.
Creative Commons No Rights Reserved license. Enables creators and owners of copyright- or database-protected content to waive those interests in their works and place them as completely as possible in the public domain.
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science. UK government's marine and freshwater science experts that provide data and advice to government and overseas partners, and MEDIN fisheries DAC.
Data Archive Centre. A collection of data archive centres work with different data themes as part of the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network.
The Archive for Marine Species and Habitats Data, based at the Marine Biological Association in the UK. DASSH is a CoreTrustSeal and MEDIN-accredited data archive centre, and the UK node of OBIS.
Digital Object Identifier. A digital identifier of an object - physical, digital, or abstract.
Darwin Core data standard that facilitates the sharing of information about biological diversity by providing identifiers, labels and definitions. Primarily based on taxa and their occurrence in nature, and uses the file format DwC-A.
Darwin Core Archive standard file format used in the Darwin Core standard.
European Directory of Marine Organisations. Contains up-to-date addresses and activity profiles of research institutes, data holding centres, monitoring agencies, governmental and private organisations, that are in one way or another engaged in oceanographic and marine research activities, data & information management and/or data acquisition activities.
Ecological Metadata Language. A metadata standard for ecological metadata.
European Marine Observation and Data Network. A network of organisations supported by the EU's integrated maritime policy that work together to observe the sea, process the data according to international standards and make that information freely available as interoperable data layers and data products.
European Petroleum Survey Group. The EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset contains definitions of coordinate reference systems and coordinate transformations which may be global, regional, national or local in application. It is maintained by the Geodesy Subcommittee of the IOGP Geomatics Committee.
The European Nature Information System. Contains a controlled vocabulary to describe habitat types.
European Ocean Biodiversity Information System. Publishes data on marine species, collected within European marine waters or collected by European researchers outside European marine waters.
Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable. The guiding principles for scientific data management and stewardship.
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
General Data Protection Regulation.
Geographic Information Systems
Globally Unique Identifier
Historic Environment Scotland. Scottish data archive centre and MEDIN historic environment DAC.
International Council for the Exploration of the Seas. Marine science organisation that provides evidence on the state and sustainable use of the seas and oceans.
A global community for nature lovers where you can record your own nature observations and get help identifying them. iNaturalistUK is a member of the iNaturalist network and is co-ordinated in the UK by the National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN Trust) with the support of the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the Biological Records Centre (BRC).
Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community. It places legal obligations on public bodies to publish particular datasets that are geo-spatial, in any of the 34 INSPIRE themes and should be existing data.
Integrated Publishing Toolkit. A free open-source software developed by GBIF and used by organisations around the world to create and manage repositories for sharing biodiversity datasets.
Recording platform for UK wildlife
The Joint Cetacean Data Programme promotes and facilitates cetacean data standardisation and maximises value thorugh collation and the enabling of universal access to these data.
Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Statuatory nature advisor to the four countries in the UK. They provide scientific evidence and advice to aid decision makers with turning science into action for nature.
A European Research Infrastructure Consortium providing e-Science research facilities to scientists investigating biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services in order to support society in addressing key planetary challenges.
Software for creating MEDIN-compliant metadata records.
A benthic survey data management system used widely within the UK’s statutory nature conservation bodies to store and query benthic sample data across the UK’s offshore and inshore waters. The system is able to store species occurrence data (with associated measurements), biotope information in the Marine Habitat Classification for Britain & Ireland and physical attribute data. The system maintains consistency and relationships between sample information, measurements and surveys allowing for accessible querying of the database.
Marine Scotland is part of the Scottish government, and a MEDIN fisheries DAC, responsible for managing Scotland's marine and freshwater environment.
The Marine Life Information Network. Provides information on the biology of species and the ecology of habitats found around the coasts and seas of the British Isles.
The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. A learned society with a scientific laboratory that undertakes research in marine biology.
Marine Environmental Data and Information Network. An open partnership representing government departments, research institutions and private companies in the UK that promote the sharing of, and access to, marine environmental data.
The MEDIN data archive centre for marine meteorological (metocean) data in the UK.
Marine Management Organisation, an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment Programme. A research and development program funded by Defra.
Marine Species of the British Isles and Adjacent Seas. Register of marine species, which is a subset of WoRMS containing species found in the British Isles and Adjascent Seas.
National Biodiversity Network in the UK
NBN data repository
Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment. A science innovation and transformation programme, which spans across land and water environments. It has been set up to collect data on the extent, condition and change over time of England’s ecosystems and natural capital, and the benefits to society.
Natural Environment Research Council.
The NE Atlantic Marine Biological Analytical Quality Control Scheme provides a source of external Quality Assurance (QA) for laboratories engaged in the production of marine biological data.
Ocean Biodiversity Information System. A global open-access data and information clearing-house on marine biodiversity for science, conservation and sustainable development.
The Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS) global network of distributed information and data resources related to the ocean, consisting of a partnership of distributed, independent systems voluntarily sharing (meta)data and information along co-developed and clear conventions in the pursuit of common goals.
Open Government License for public sector information.
Marine conservation charity dedicated to the long-term study and protection of whales, dolphins and porpoises and their habitats around the world.
Python is an interpreted, object-oriented, high-level programming language with dynamic semantics. The Python interpreter and the extensive standard library are available in source or binary form without charge for all major platforms, and can be freely distributed.
Quality Assurance. A quality check carried out prior to publication of data to ensure the data are correct and accurate, which may include a step of data validation to check they meet the relevant data standards. See link for DASSH's quality assurance procedure.
Quality Control. A quality check to ensure the data protocols and techniques produce high quality data; this may include analysing preliminary data prior to a collection event to make adjustments for elements like bias or systematic errors, and verifying records are correctly recorded prior to submission to a data archive centre which may conduct further quality assurance prior to archiving and publishing the data.
Quantum Geographic Information System. An open-source software used to visualise, manage, edit, analyse data and compose printable maps.
A free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS.
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. MEDIN Historic Environment DAC which has a role in developing and promoting understanding of the archaeological, built and maritime heritage of Wales, as the originator, curator and supplier of authoritative information for individual, corporate and governmental decision makers, researchers, and the general public.
Research Data Alliance. An international volunteer member-based organisation aiming to interact with researchers and innovators to exchange inforamtion in compliance with RDA's guiding principles.
Data repositories are a centralised place to hold data, share data publicly, and organise data in a logical manner.
Tool for validating MEDIN metadata records.
Pan-European Infrastructure for Ocean and Marine Data Management. SeaDataNet has federated open digital repositories to manage, access and share data, information, products and knowledge originating from oceanographic fleets, new automatic observation systems and space sensors.
A project for recreational divers and snorkellers who want to collect information about habitats, flora and fauna they see underwater.
A not-for-profit community interest company, passionate about connecting people of all ages and backgrounds to the incredible wildlife found around the UK coastline.
UK geographic metadata standard that provides guidance on how to publish geographic metadata in a way that conforms to UK government guidelines and the relevant ISO standards.
The United Kingdom Directory of Marine Observing Systems. An internet-based searchable database of marine monitoring conducted by UK organisations, managed by MEDIN.
UK Hydrographic Office. A UK executive agency and MEDIN data archive centre for hydrography, specialising in marine geospatial data.
This determines whether a particular data point is correct and in the required format, for example data can be validated automatically using a tool that checks data are in the correct format to conform to a data standard.
A step to verify the accuracy, consistency and truth of the data, often involving experts confirming the accuracy of records.
World Register of Marine Species. The aim of a World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is to provide an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms, including information on synonymy. While the highest priority goes to valid names, other names in use are included so that this register can serve as a guide to interpret taxonomic literature.
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format derived from SGML (ISO 8879). Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and elsewhere.