Introduction

Data Review and Archive

Data review and archiving can be a time-consuming process, especially when done manually. This review report aims to help facilitate both activities. It automates the archiving of datasets, including Darwin Core archives, and is a citable backup of a version of the dataset. Additionally, an automatic review of species interaction claims made in the dataset is generated and registered with Global Biotic Interactions (J. H. Poelen, Simons, and Mungall 2014).

This review includes summary statistics about, and observations about, the dataset under review:

Gray, C., Ma, A., Perkins, D., Hudson, L., Figueroa, D., & Woodward, G. (2015). Database of trophic interactions [Data set]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13751 https://github.com/globalbioticinteractions/foodwebsdatabase/archive/4aa24df2e9712264a52b148f6486df4b54ee7c49.zip 2025-04-05T00:12:02.985Z hash://md5/666475c202960ed6009d1de0568eb76d

For additional metadata related to this dataset, please visit https://github.com/globalbioticinteractions/foodwebsdatabase and inspect associated metadata files including, but not limited to, README.md, eml.xml, and/or globi.json.

Methods

The review is performed through programmatic scripts that leverage tools like Preston (Elliott et al. 2025), Elton (Kuhn, Poelen, and Leinweber 2025), Nomer (Salim and Poelen 2025), globinizer (J. Poelen, Seltmann, and Mietchen 2024) combined with third-party tools like grep, mlr, tail and head.

Tools used in this review process

tool name	version
preston	0.10.1
elton	0.15.9
nomer	0.5.13
globinizer	0.4.0
mlr	6.0.0
jq	1.6
yq	4.25.3
pandoc	3.1.6.1

The review process can be described in the form of the script below ¹.

# get versioned copy of the dataset (size approx. 6.88MiB) under review 
elton pull globalbioticinteractions/foodwebsdatabase

# generate review notes
elton review globalbioticinteractions/foodwebsdatabase\
 > review.tsv

# export indexed interaction records
elton interactions globalbioticinteractions/foodwebsdatabase\
 > interactions.tsv

# export names and align them with the Catalogue of Life using Nomer 
elton names globalbioticinteractions/foodwebsdatabase\
 | nomer append col\
 > name-alignment.tsv

or visually, in a process diagram.

Review Process Overview

You can find a copy of the full review script at check-data.sh. See also GitHub and Codeberg.

Results

In the following sections, the results of the review are summarized ². Then, links to the detailed review reports are provided.

Files

The following files are produced in this review:

filename	description
biblio.bib	list of bibliographic reference of this review
check-dataset.sh	data review workflow/process as expressed in a bash script
data.zip	a versioned Preston (Elliott et al. 2025) archive of the data under review
HEAD	the digital signature of the data under review
index.docx	review in MS Word format
index.html	review in HTML format
index.md	review in Pandoc markdown format
index.pdf	review in PDF format
indexed-citations.csv.gz	list of distinct reference citations for reviewed species interaction claims in gzipped comma-separated values file format
indexed-citations.html.gz	list of distinct reference citations for reviewed species interactions claims in gzipped html file format
indexed-citations.tsv.gz	list of distinct reference citations for reviewed species interaction claims in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-interactions-col-family-col-family.svg	network diagram showing the taxon family to taxon family interaction claims in the dataset under review as interpreted by the Catalogue of Life via Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024)
indexed-interactions-col-kingdom-col-kingdom.svg	network diagram showing the taxon kingdom to taxon kingom interaction claims in the dataset under review as interpreted by the Catalogue of Life via Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024)
indexed-interactions.csv.gz	species interaction claims indexed from the dataset under review in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-interactions.html.gz	species interaction claims indexed from the dataset under review in gzipped html format
indexed-interactions.tsv.gz	species interaction claims indexed from the dataset under review in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-interactions-sample.csv	list of species interaction claims indexed from the dataset under review in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-interactions-sample.html	first 500 species interaction claims indexed from the dataset under review in html format
indexed-interactions-sample.tsv	first 500 species interaction claims indexed from the dataset under review in tab-separated values format
indexed-names.csv.gz	taxonomic names indexed from the dataset under review in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-names.html.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review in gzipped html format
indexed-names.tsv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-col.csv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the Catalogue of Life as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-col.html.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the Catalogue of Life as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped html format
indexed-names-resolved-col.tsv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the Catalogue of Life as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-discoverlife.csv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with Discover Life bee species checklist as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-discoverlife.html.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with Discover Life bee species checklist as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped html format
indexed-names-resolved-discoverlife.tsv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with Discover Life bee species checklist as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-gbif.csv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with GBIF Backbone Taxonomy as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-gbif.html.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with GBIF Backbone Taxonomy as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped html format
indexed-names-resolved-gbif.tsv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with GBIF Backbone Taxonomy as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-itis.csv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-itis.html.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped html format
indexed-names-resolved-itis.tsv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-mdd.csv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the Mammal Diversity Database as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-mdd.html.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with Mammal Diversity Database as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped html format
indexed-names-resolved-mdd.tsv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with Mammal Diversity Database as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-ncbi.csv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the NCBI Taxonomy as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-ncbi.html.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the NCBI Taxonomy as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped html format
indexed-names-resolved-ncbi.tsv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the NCBI Taxonomy as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-pbdb.csv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the Paleobiology Database as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-pbdb.html.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with Paleobiology Database as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped html format
indexed-names-resolved-pbdb.tsv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with Paleobiology Database as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-tpt.csv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the Terrestrial Parasite Tracker (TPT) Taxonomic Resource as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-tpt.html.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the Terrestrial Parasite Tracker (TPT) Taxonomic Resource as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped html format
indexed-names-resolved-tpt.tsv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the Terrestrial Parasite Tracker (TPT) Taxonomic Resource as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-wfo.csv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the World of Flora Online as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-wfo.html.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the World of Flora Online as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped html format
indexed-names-resolved-wfo.tsv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the World of Flora Online as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-worms.csv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped comma-separated values format
indexed-names-resolved-worms.html.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped html format
indexed-names-resolved-worms.tsv.gz	taxonomic names found in the dataset under review aligned with the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) as accessed through the Nomer Corpus of Taxonomic Resources (J. H. (ed. ). Poelen 2024) in gzipped tab-separated values format
indexed-names-sample.csv	first 500 taxonomic names found in the dataset under review in comma-separated values format
indexed-names-sample.html	first 500 taxonomic names found in the dataset under review in html format
indexed-names-sample.tsv	first 500 taxonomic names found in the dataset under review in tab-separated values format
interaction.svg	diagram summarizing the data model used to index species interaction claims
nanopub-sample.trig	first 500 species interaction claims as expressed in the nanopub format (Kuhn and Dumontier 2014)
nanopub.trig.gz	species interaction claims as expressed in the nanopub format (Kuhn and Dumontier 2014)
process.svg	diagram summarizing the data review processing workflow
prov.nq	origin of the dataset under review as expressed in rdf/nquads
review.csv.gz	review notes associated with the dataset under review in gzipped comma-separated values format
review.html.gz	review notes associated with the dataset under review in gzipped html format
review.tsv.gz	review notes associated with the dataset under review in gzipped tab-separated values format
review-sample.csv	first 500 review notes associated with the dataset under review in comma-separated values format
review-sample.html	first 500 review notes associated with the dataset under review in html format
review-sample.tsv	first 500 review notes associated with the dataset under review in tab-separated values format
review.svg	a review badge generated as part of the dataset review process
zenodo.json	metadata of this review expressed in Zenodo record metadata

Archived Dataset

Note that data.zip file in this archive contains the complete, unmodified archived dataset under review.

Biotic Interactions

Biotic Interaction Data Model

In this review, biotic interactions (or biotic associations) are modeled as a primary (aka subject, source) organism interacting with an associate (aka object, target) organism. The dataset under review classified the primary/associate organisms with specific taxa. The primary and associate organisms The kind of interaction is documented as an interaction type.

The dataset under review, named globalbioticinteractions/foodwebsdatabase, has fingerprint hash://md5/666475c202960ed6009d1de0568eb76d, is 6.88MiB in size and contains 20,823 interaction with 1 unique type of association (e.g., eats) between 362 primary taxa (e.g., Salmo trutta) and 668 associated taxa (e.g., Simuliidae).

An exhaustive list of indexed interaction claims can be found in gzipped csv and tsv archives. To facilitate discovery, a preview of claims available in the gzipped html page at indexed-interactions.html.gz are shown below.

The exhaustive list was used to create the following data summaries below.

Sample of Indexed Interaction Claims

sourceTaxonName	interactionTypeName	targetTaxonName	referenceCitation
Ancylus fluviatilis	eats	FPOM	Ledger, M.E., Brown, L.E., Edwards, F., Milner, A.M. & Woodward, G. (2012) Drought alters the structure and functioning of complex food webs. Nature Climate Change.
Ancylus fluviatilis	eats	CPOM	Ledger, M.E., Brown, L.E., Edwards, F., Milner, A.M. & Woodward, G. (2012) Drought alters the structure and functioning of complex food webs. Nature Climate Change.
Ancylus fluviatilis	eats	Navicula gregaria	Ledger, M.E., Brown, L.E., Edwards, F., Milner, A.M. & Woodward, G. (2012) Drought alters the structure and functioning of complex food webs. Nature Climate Change.
Ancylus fluviatilis	eats	Navicula tripunctata	Ledger, M.E., Brown, L.E., Edwards, F., Milner, A.M. & Woodward, G. (2012) Drought alters the structure and functioning of complex food webs. Nature Climate Change.

Most Frequently Mentioned Interaction Types (up to 20 most frequent)

interactionTypeName	count
eats	20823

Most Frequently Mentioned Primary Taxa (up to 20 most frequent)

sourceTaxonName	count
Salmo trutta	3212
Cordulegaster	655
Isoperla grammatica	603
Trissopelopia	513
Cottus gobio	472
Perlodes microcephalus	415
Rhyacophila dorsalis	394
Sialis	289
Macropelopia	286
Phoxinus phoxinus	272
Anguilla anguilla	271
Esox lucius	218
Siphonoperla torrentium	204
Microtendipes	187
Gammarus pulex	173
Radix balthica	171
Elmis aenea	164
Limnius volckmari	162
Plectrocnemia	160

Most Frequently Mentioned Associate Taxa (up to 20 most frequent)

targetTaxonName	count
Simuliidae	1498
Baetis	575
Orthocladiinae	524
Chironomidae	488
Algae	480
Gammarus pulex	422
Heterotrissocladius	401
CPOM	361
Achnanthes	323
Nemurella	294
FPOM	262
Cocconeis placentula	252
Rhoicosphenia abbreviata	203
Leuctra nigra	199
Gomphonema olivaceum	197
Melosira varians	192
Navicula tripunctata	189
Amphora pediculus	185
Staurosira elliptica	183

Most Frequent Interactions between Primary and Associate Taxa (up to 20 most frequent)

sourceTaxonName	interactionTypeName	targetTaxonName	count
Salmo trutta	eats	Simuliidae	1112
Salmo trutta	eats	Orthocladiinae	359
Salmo trutta	eats	Gammarus pulex	325
Salmo trutta	eats	Baetis	287
Cordulegaster	eats	Nemurella	212
Isoperla grammatica	eats	Algae	188
Anguilla anguilla	eats	Simuliidae	146
Salmo trutta	eats	Lepidostoma hirtum	125
Perlodes microcephalus	eats	Algae	121
Cottus gobio	eats	Simuliidae	120
Trissopelopia	eats	Heterotrissocladius	116
Salmo trutta	eats	Silo pallipes	115
Salmo trutta	eats	Tanytarsini	113
Rhyacophila dorsalis	eats	Chironomidae	112
Isoperla grammatica	eats	Chironomidae	103
Rhyacophila dorsalis	eats	Algae	94
Perlodes microcephalus	eats	Chironomidae	93
Macropelopia	eats	Heterotrissocladius	91
Cordulegaster	eats	Heterotrissocladius	90

Interaction Networks

The figures below provide a graph view on the dataset under review. The first shows a summary network on the kingdom level, and the second shows how interactions on the family level. It is important to note that both network graphs were first aligned taxonomically using the Catalogue of Life. Please refer to the original (or verbatim) taxonomic names for a more original view on the interaction data.

Interactions on taxonomic kingdom rank as interpreted by the Catalogue of Life download svg Interactions on the taxonomic family rank as interpreted by the Catalogue of Life. download svg

You can download the indexed dataset under review at indexed-interactions.csv.gz. A tab-separated file can be found at indexed-interactions.tsv.gz

Learn more about the structure of this download at GloBI website, by opening a GitHub issue, or by sending an email.

Another way to discover the dataset under review is by searching for it on the GloBI website.

Taxonomic Alignment

As part of the review, all names are aligned against various name catalogs (e.g., col, ncbi, discoverlife, gbif, itis, wfo, mdd, tpt, pbdb, and worms). These alignments can help review name usage or aid in selecting of a suitable taxonomic name resource.

Sample of Name Alignments

providedName	relationName	resolvedCatalogName	resolvedName
Acanthocyclops vernalis	SYNONYM_OF	col	Acanthocyclops vernalis vernalis
Acanthocyclops vernalis	HAS_ACCEPTED_NAME	col	Acanthocyclops vernalis
Acari	NONE	col	Acari
Achnanthes altaica	NONE	col	Achnanthes altaica

Distribution of Taxonomic Ranks of Aligned Names by Catalog. Names that were not aligned with a catalog are counted as NAs. So, the total number of unaligned names for a catalog will be listed in their NA row.

resolvedCatalogName	resolvedRank	count
col	NA	271
col	class	4
col	family	21
col	genus	199
col	infraorder	1
col	kingdom	1
col	order	11
col	other	1
col	phylum	4
col	species	308
col	subclass	1
col	subfamily	5
col	subgenus	13
col	suborder	1
col	subspecies	7
col	tribe	4
discoverlife	NA	827
gbif	NA	49
gbif	class	5
gbif	family	24
gbif	form	7
gbif	genus	221
gbif	kingdom	1
gbif	order	12
gbif	phylum	4
gbif	species	511
gbif	subspecies	7
gbif	variety	15
itis	NA	187
itis	class	5
itis	family	23
itis	genus	202
itis	infraorder	1
itis	kingdom	1
itis	order	11
itis	phylum	5
itis	species	375
itis	subclass	3
itis	subfamily	5
itis	suborder	3
itis	subspecies	1
itis	superorder	1
itis	tribe	4
itis	variety	1
mdd	NA	826
ncbi	NA	163
ncbi	clade	1
ncbi	class	3
ncbi	cohort	1
ncbi	family	23
ncbi	genus	206
ncbi	infraorder	1
ncbi	kingdom	1
ncbi	order	11
ncbi	phylum	6
ncbi	species	397
ncbi	subclass	4
ncbi	subfamily	5
ncbi	subgenus	4
ncbi	suborder	4
ncbi	subspecies	1
ncbi	tribe	4
ncbi	varietas	1
pbdb	NA	637
pbdb	class	7
pbdb	family	21
pbdb	genus	107
pbdb	informal	1
pbdb	infraclass	1
pbdb	infraorder	2
pbdb	kingdom	1
pbdb	order	11
pbdb	phylum	5
pbdb	species	25
pbdb	subclass	2
pbdb	subfamily	6
pbdb	suborder	3
pbdb	tribe	4
pbdb	unranked clade	1
tpt	NA	767
tpt	species	59
wfo	NA	816
wfo	genus	10
worms	NA	421
worms	class	3
worms	family	19
worms	forma	1
worms	genus	116
worms	kingdom	2
worms	order	13
worms	phylum	5
worms	phylum (division)	1
worms	species	228
worms	subclass	4
worms	subfamily	5
worms	suborder	4
worms	subspecies	2
worms	tribe	2
worms	variety	11

Name relationship types per catalog. Name relationship type "NONE" means that a name was not recognized by the associated catalog. "SAME_AS" indicates either a "HAS_ACCEPTED_NAME" or "SYNONYM_OF" name relationship type. We recognize that "SYNONYM_OF" encompasses many types of nomenclatural synonymies

resolvedCatalogName	relationName	count
col	SYNONYM_OF	82
col	HAS_ACCEPTED_NAME	580
col	NONE	276
discoverlife	NONE	834
gbif	HAS_ACCEPTED_NAME	871
gbif	NONE	54
gbif	SYNONYM_OF	193
itis	HAS_ACCEPTED_NAME	615
itis	SYNONYM_OF	37
itis	NONE	192
mdd	NONE	833
ncbi	SAME_AS	659
ncbi	NONE	168
ncbi	SYNONYM_OF	23
pbdb	NONE	642
pbdb	SYNONYM_OF	19
pbdb	HAS_ACCEPTED_NAME	190
tpt	NONE	774
tpt	HAS_ACCEPTED_NAME	98
tpt	SYNONYM_OF	37
wfo	NONE	823
wfo	HAS_ACCEPTED_NAME	5
wfo	HAS_UNCHECKED_NAME	2
wfo	SYNONYM_OF	4
worms	HAS_ACCEPTED_NAME	414
worms	SYNONYM_OF	82
worms	NONE	426

List of Available Name Alignment Reports

catalog name	alignment results
col	associated names alignments report in gzipped html, csv, and tsv)
ncbi	associated names alignments report in gzipped html, csv, and tsv)
discoverlife	associated names alignments report in gzipped html, csv, and tsv)
gbif	associated names alignments report in gzipped html, csv, and tsv)
itis	associated names alignments report in gzipped html, csv, and tsv)
wfo	associated names alignments report in gzipped html, csv, and tsv)
mdd	associated names alignments report in gzipped html, csv, and tsv)
tpt	associated names alignments report in gzipped html, csv, and tsv)
pbdb	associated names alignments report in gzipped html, csv, and tsv)
worms	associated names alignments report in gzipped html, csv, and tsv)

Additional Reviews

Elton, Nomer, and other tools may have difficulties interpreting existing species interaction datasets. Or, they may misbehave, or otherwise show unexpected behavior. As part of the review process, detailed review notes are kept that document possibly misbehaving, or confused, review bots. An sample of review notes associated with this review can be found below.

First few lines in the review notes.

reviewDate	reviewCommentType	reviewComment
2025-04-10T20:05:56Z	summary	https://github.com/globalbioticinteractions/foodwebsdatabase/archive/4aa24df2e9712264a52b148f6486df4b54ee7c49.zip
2025-04-10T20:05:56Z	summary	20823 interaction(s)
2025-04-10T20:05:56Z	summary	0 note(s)
2025-04-10T20:05:56Z	summary	20823 info(s)

In addition, you can find the most frequently occurring notes in the table below.

: Most frequently occurring review notes, if any.

For additional information on review notes, please have a look at the first 500 Review Notes in html format or the download full gzipped csv or tsv archives.

GloBI Review Badge

As part of the review, a review badge is generated. This review badge can be included in webpages to indicate the review status of the dataset under review.

Picture of a GloBI Review Badge ³

Note that if the badge is green, no review notes were generated. If the badge is yellow, the review bots may need some help with interpreting the species interaction data.

GloBI Index Badge

If the dataset under review has been registered with GloBI, and has been succesfully indexed by GloBI, the GloBI Index Status Badge will turn green. This means that the dataset under review was indexed by GloBI and is available through GloBI services and derived data products.

Picture of a GloBI Index Badge ⁴

If you'd like to keep track of reviews or index status of the dataset under review, please visit GloBI's dataset index ⁵ for badge examples.

Discussion

This review and archive provides a means of creating citable versions of datasets that change frequently. This may be useful for dataset managers, including natural history collection data managers, as a backup archive of a shared Darwin Core archive. It also serves as a means of creating a trackable citation for the dataset in an automated way, while also including some information about the contents of the dataset.

This review aims to provide a perspective on the dataset to aid in understanding of species interaction claims discovered. However, it is important to note that this review does not assess the quality of the dataset. Instead, it serves as an indication of the open-ness⁶ and FAIRness (Wilkinson et al. 2016; Trekels et al. 2023) of the dataset: to perform this review, the data was likely openly available, Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The current Open-FAIR assessment is qualitative, and a more quantitative approach can be implemented with specified measurement units.

This report also showcases the reuse of machine-actionable (meta)data, something highly recommended by the FAIR Data Principles (Wilkinson et al. 2016). Making (meta)data machine-actionable enables more precise procesing by computers, enabling even naive review bots like Nomer and Elton to interpret the data effectively. This capability is crucial for not just automating the generation of reports, but also for facilitating seamless data exchanges, promoting interoperability.

Acknowledgements

We thank the many humans that created us and those who created and maintained the data, software and other intellectual resources that were used for producing this review. In addition, we are grateful for the natural resources providing the basis for these human and bot activities. Also, thanks to https://github.com/zygoballus for helping improve the layout of the review tables.

Author contributions

Nomer was responsible for name alignments. Elton carried out dataset extraction, and generated the review notes. Preston tracked, versioned, and packaged, the dataset under review.

References

1. Note that you have to first get the data (e.g., via elton pull globalbioticinteractions/foodwebsdatabase) before being able to generate reviews (e.g., elton review globalbioticinteractions/foodwebsdatabase), extract interaction claims (e.g., elton interactions globalbioticinteractions/foodwebsdatabase), or list taxonomic names (e.g., elton names globalbioticinteractions/foodwebsdatabase)↩︎

2. Disclaimer: The results in this review should be considered friendly, yet naive, notes from an unsophisticated robot. Please keep that in mind when considering the review results.↩︎

3. Up-to-date status of the GloBI Review Badge can be retrieved from the GloBI Review Depot↩︎

4. Up-to-date status of the GloBI Index Badge can be retrieved from GloBI's API↩︎

5. At time of writing (2025-04-10) the version of the GloBI dataset index was available at https://globalbioticinteractions.org/datasets↩︎

6. According to http://opendefinition.org/: "Open data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone - subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike."↩︎