ABCD Data Schema

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Access to Biological Collections Data

The Access to Biological Collections Data schema (ABCD) is the core standard of any BioCASe related network. Its primary use case is the publication of rich natural history collections specimen data, but it can also be used for general species occurrence datasets. It is XML-based (eXtensible Mark-up Language), meaning it stores the information in a structure that can be easily processed by software. Two major versions of ABCD have been widely adopted by networks: version 1.2 and the current version 2.06, which is an accepted standard of Biodiversity Information Standards (also known as Taxonomic Databases Working Group).

Currently, documentation on ABCD is a bit scattered (a situation that will hopefully be overcome soon by the current ABCD 3 project):

• The current version 2.06 is described in detail in this publication
• The ABCD Development page at BGBM describes the history and links various resources.
• The TDWG homepage documents the current standard.
• A rather informal, more practical description and sample documents can be found on the PyWrapper Wiki.
• The Schema Repository of the BGBM.