Today, GBIF crosses a significant milestone, logging the 10,000th peer-reviewed journal article using and citing data shared through its network. The number of GBIF-enabled scientific publications has increased steadily since tracking began. This corpus of research included more than 1,700 published papers from 2023, with the largest monthly share (180) coming in December—an average of six published peer-reviewed uses per day.
The 10,000th paper, published in the journal Biodiversity, explores the effects of climate change on rhinoceros populations in Southern Africa. Authors Hlelowenkhosi Mamba and Timothy Randhir from the University of Massachusetts relied on species occurrence records from the GBIF network to model the future distributions of critically endangered black (Diceros bicornis) and near threatened white (Ceratotherium simum) rhinoceros populations in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania. Their findings suggest that temperature changes are likely to have significant impacts on rhinos, concluding that strengthened conservation strategies remain critical for the survival of both species.
Authors who cite the DOIs that GBIF assigns to their data downloads help create direct links between their studies and the data sources, enabling the attribution of credit to the publishers. The transparency and reproducibility of research is also vastly improved, as users who rerun the query for the original rhino data citations will note significant increases in the available data since the authors made their downloads in 2017, with access to twice as many black rhino records and more than five times as many for the white rhino.
Long-standing citation practices and personal habits have slowed the uptake of DOI-based data citations, but direct outreach from GBIF to authors has improved this significantly. Today, nearly two in three articles follow the recommended guidelines.
Chart showing data citations in GBIF-enabled peer-reviewed research by type, 2014-2023
"Data providers deserve credit for their work, and when authors cite the DOIs we provide, it helps our network of data providers demonstrate the broad impact of their work to their stakeholders and funders," says Joe Miller, executive secretary of GBIF. "We hope that creating this robust system of credit and attribution helps encourage all holders of biodiversity data to share it and improve our shared understanding of biodiversity."
Miller continued, "Credit is also due to the Secretariat's Daniel Noesgaard, whose dedication and innovation in this work has contributed greatly toward establishing GBIF as a leader in the practice of data citation and tracking."
Secretariat staff are currently preparing a manuscript describing GBIF's system of enabling the tracking and linking of papers and data, including details of how the system has evolved over the years. The annual Science Review highlights interesting and important examples from the now more than 10,000 GBIF-enabled papers. The paper is expected to be published later this year.