Structured Descriptive Data (SDD)

Header section

Title

Structured Descriptive Data (SDD)

Permanent IRI (for citations and links)

http://www.tdwg.org/standards/116

Publisher

Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG)

Ratified

2005-09-16

Status

Current (2005) standard

Category

Technical specification

Abstract

In taxonomy, descriptive data takes a number of very different forms. Natural-language descriptions are semi-structured, semi-formalised descriptions of a taxon (or occasionally of an individual specimen). They may be simple, short and written in plain language (if used for a popular field guide), or long, highly formal and using specialised terminology when used in a taxonomic monograph or other treatment. Dichotomous keys are specialised identification tools comprising fragments of descriptive data arranged in couplets forming a branching tree. Each fragment (lead) comprises a small (occasionally verbose) natural-language description. Raw data descriptions usually comprise repeated measurements of parts of individual specimens, and are the basis from which the more abstracted descriptions in natural language and coded descriptions are derived. Few taxonomists consistently record and archive their raw data in a standardised format. The goal of the SDD standard is to allow capture, transport, caching and archiving of descriptive data in all the forms shown above, using a platform- and application-independent, XML-based international standard. Such a standard is crucial to enabling lossless porting of data between existing and future software platforms including identification, data-mining and analysis tools, and federated databases.

Citation

Structure of Descriptive Data Subgroup. 2005. Structured Descriptive Data (SDD). Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) http://www.tdwg.org/standards/116

Parts of the standard

This standard is comprised of 2 documents.

Introduction and Primer to the Structured Descriptive Data (SDD) Standard

Permanent IRI

http://rs.tdwg.org/sdd/doc/introduction/

Created

2006-05-11

Last modified

2006-05-11

Contributors

Gregor Hagedorn (author) - Julius Kühn Institute

Kevin R. Thiele (author) - Western Australian Herbarium

Robert A. Morris (author) - University of Massachusetts at Boston, USA

P. Bryan Heidorn (author) - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Publisher

Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG)

Abstract

This document is a non-normative introduction to the Taxonomic Databases Working Group SDD (Structure of Descriptive Data) Standard. Its intention is to provide a background, introduction and primer to the SDD Standard, with examples.

Citation

Structure of Descriptive Data (SDD) Subgroup. 2006. Introduction and Primer to the Structured Descriptive Data (SDD) Standard. Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG). http://rs.tdwg.org/sdd/doc/introduction/

Structured Descriptive Data XML Schema

Permanent IRI

http://rs.tdwg.org/sdd/doc/xmlschema/

Created

2006-05-11

Last modified

2006-05-11

Contributors

Gregor Hagedorn (author) - Julius Kühn Institute

Kevin R. Thiele (author) - Western Australian Herbarium

Robert A. Morris (author) - University of Massachusetts at Boston, USA

Publisher

Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG)

Abstract

This is the schema file to be referenced in instance documents for validation. It is the top level schema file that integrates the schema components.

Note

See also https://sdd.tdwg.org/2006/rddl.html and https://sdd.tdwg.org/2006/Schema/1.1/UBIF_(c).xsd

Citation

Structure of Descriptive Data (SDD) Subgroup. 2006. Structured Descriptive Data XML Schema. Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG). http://rs.tdwg.org/sdd/doc/xmlschema/