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Design, development, and implementation of IsoBank: A centralized repository for isotopic data


Abstract Stable isotope data have made pivotal contributions to nearly every discipline of the physical and natural sciences. As the generation and application of stable isotope data continues to grow exponentially, so does the need for a unifying data repository to improve accessibility and promote collaborative engagement. This paper provides an overview of the design, development, and implementation of IsoBank (www.isobank.org), a community-driven initiative to create an open-access repository for stable isotope data implemented online in 2021. A central goal of IsoBank is to provide a web-accessible database supporting interdisciplinary stable isotope research and educational opportunities. To achieve this goal, we convened a multi-disciplinary group of over 40 analytical experts, stable isotope researchers, database managers, and web developers to collaboratively design the database. This paper outlines the main features of IsoBank and provides a focused description of the core metadata structure. We present plans for future database and tool development and engagement across the scientific community. These efforts will help facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration among the many users of stable isotopic data while also offering useful data resources and standardization of metadata reporting across eco-geoinformatics landscapes.
Authors Oliver N. Shipley ORCID , Anna Dabrowski , Gabriel J. Bowen ORCID , Brian Hayden ORCID , Jonathan N. Pauli ORCID , C. Jordan ORCID , Lesleigh Anderson ORCID , Adriana Bailey ORCID , Clément P. Bataille ORCID , Carla Cicero ORCID , Hilary G. Close ORCID , Craig Cook University of Wyoming , Joseph A. Cook ORCID , Ankur R. Desai ORCID , Jaivime Evaristo ORCID , T. R. Filley ORCID , Christine A.M. France ORCID , Andrew L. Jackson ORCID , Sora L. Kim ORCID , Sebastian Kopf ORCID , Julie Loisel ORCID , Philip J. Manlick ORCID , Jamie McFarlin University of WyomingORCID , Bailey C. McMeans ORCID , Tamsin C. O’Connell ORCID , Suzanne E. Pilaar Birch ORCID , Annie Putman ORCID , Brice X. Semmens ORCID , Chris Stantis ORCID , Craig A. Stricker ORCID , Paul Szejner ORCID , Tara L. E. Trammell ORCID , Mark D. Uhen ORCID , Samantha R. Weintraub ORCID , Matthew J. Wooller ORCID , John W. Williams ORCID , Christopher T. Yarnes ORCID , Hannah B. Vander Zanden ORCID , Seth D. Newsome ORCID
Journal Info Public Library of Science | PLoS ONE , vol: 19 , iss: 9 , pages: e0295662 - e0295662
Publication Date 9/6/2024
ISSN 1932-6203
TypeKeyword Image article
Open Access gold Gold Access
DOI https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0295662
KeywordsKeyword Image Data Sharing (Score: 0.45829874) , Geoinformatics (Score: 0.45539254)