Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31993260›Full record

ArticleApplications in plant sciences2020

A new model for efficient, need-driven progress in generating primary biodiversity information resources.

Alex Asase, Moses N Sainge, Raoufou A Radji, Omokafe A Ugbogu, A Townsend Peterson

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Applications in plant sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Alex AsaseDepartment of Plant and Environmental Biology University of Ghana P.O. Box LG 55 Legon Ghana.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0116-3445
Moses N SaingeTropical Plant Exploration Group (TroPEG) P.O. Box 18 Mundemba Cameroon.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1677-3043
Raoufou A RadjiDepartment of Botany University of Lome 06 BP 6135 Lome Togo.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6597-8438
Omokafe A UgboguForestry Research Institute of Nigeria PMB 5054, Jericho Hills Ibadan Nigeria.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6051-5047
A Townsend PetersonBiodiversity Institute, and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Kansas Lawrence Kansas USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0243-2379

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

premiseThe field of biodiversity informatics has developed rapidly in recent years, with broad availability of large-scale information resources. However, online biodiversity information is biased spatially as a result of slow and uneven capture and digitization of existing data resources. The West African Plants Initiative approach to data capture is a prototype of a novel solution to the problems of the traditional model, in which the institutional "owner" of the specimens is responsible for digital capture of associated data.

methodsWe developed customized workflows for data capture in formats directly and permanently useful to the "owner" herbarium, and digitized significant numbers of new biodiversity records, adding to the information available for the plants of the region.

resultsIn all, 190,953 records of species in 1965 genera and 331 families were captured by mid-2018. These data records covered 16 West African countries, with most of the records (10,000-99,999) from Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, and Cameroon, and the fewest data records from Mauritania (<100 records). The West African Plants Initiative has increased available digital accessible knowledge records for West African plants by about 54%. Several of the project institutions have put initial project data online as part of their Global Biodiversity Information Facility data contributions. The average cost of data capture ranged from US$0.50-1.00 per herbarium sheet. DISCUSSION: Data capture has been cost-effective because it is much less expensive than de novo field collections, allows for development of information resources even for regions in which political situations make contemporary field sampling impossible, and provides a historical baseline against which to compare newer data as they become available. This new paradigm in specimen digitization has considerable promise to accelerate and improve the process of generating high-quality biodiversity information, and can be replicated and applied in many biodiversity-rich, information-poor regions to remedy the present massive gaps in information availability.

Indexed as

biodiversity informaticsdigitizationplantsprimary biodiversity dataWest Africa

Identifiers

PMID31993260
PMCPMC6976889

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.