Description edit
The Darwin Core is a body of standards intended to facilitate the sharing of information about biological diversity. The DwC includes a glossary of terms, and documentation providing reference definitions, examples, and commentary. An overview of the currently adopted terms and concepts can be found in the Darwin Core quick reference guide maintained by TDWG.
The DwC operational unit is primarily based on taxa, their occurrence in nature as documented by observations, specimens, and samples, and related information. Included in the standard are documents describing how these terms are managed, how the set of terms can be extended for new purposes, and how the terms can be used.
Each DwC term includes a definition and discussions meant to promote the consistent use of the terms across applications and disciplines. In other contexts, such terms might be called properties, elements, fields, columns, attributes, or concepts. Though the data types and constraints are not provided in the term definitions, recommendations are made about how to restrict the values where appropriate, for instance by suggesting the use of controlled vocabularies.
DwC standards are versioned and are constantly evolving, and working groups frequently add to the documentation practical examples that discuss, refine, and expand the normative definitions of each term. This approach to documentation allows the standard to adapt to new purposes without disrupting existing applications.
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Usage edit
In practice, Darwin Core decouples the definition and semantics of individual terms from application of these terms in different technologies. Darwin Core provides separate guidelines on how to encode the terms as RDF,Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name (see the help page). XMLCite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name (see the help page). or text files.Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name (see the help page).
The Simple Darwin Core Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name (see the help page). is a specification for one particular way to use the terms and to share data about taxa and their occurrences in a simply-structured way. It is likely what is meant if someone were to suggest "formatting your data according to the Darwin Core".