As an information aggregator, it is of paramount importance to the Atlas that all the individuals, institutions and projects that contribute to the ALA are appropriately recognised as the source of the information. The Atlas documents and verifies attribution information when discussing data sharing with contributors and ensures that it is collected when contributions are made via electronic means. The attribution information is then displayed as prominently as possible wherever information is displayed or downloaded.
The methods of contributions and attribution capture are listed below, followed by the mechanisms for display and access to the attributions.
Attribution capture for contributions
Information harvested from web sites
- Citation information is determined in consultation with the website owner and is documented either in a Data Provider Agreement (DPA) or in writing (typically in an email).
- If the website is clearly labelled as licensed for reuse (e.g. creative commons) the citation information is harvested along with the content.
Information contributed via “share” forms
- Citation and license are selected on the web form when contributing the image, link or data set.
Information provided via other means (e.g. sent on a disk, FTP)
- Citation information determined in consultation with the data set owner and is documented either in a DPA or in writing (typically in an email).
Visibility of and access to attribution information
Occurrence data
Occurrence data is available in the generation of static maps, as record sets for view and download and for analysis in the spatial portal.
Species page
Mapped occurrence records
- Currently no citation.
List of records
- Indicates dataset for each record.
Single record
- Indicates data provider and data set.
- Data set page indicates citation text and rights for the data set.
Download
Archive file includes a citation file
- Resource name
- Citation
- Rights
- More information (link to collectory page)
- Data generalisations
- Information withheld.
Spatial portal
- Select information for the layer lists data resources and a link to the collectory page for the data set (data set page indicates citation text and rights for the data set).
- Download (sample) includes a citation.csv file
- Resource name
- Citation
- Rights
- More information (link to collectory page)
- Data generalisations
- Information withheld.
Profile information
Profile information, including links, multimedia and text, is displayed on species pages.
Overview tab
Text
Indicates source and links back to original source website or page.
Online Resources
Indicates content available and links back to the website or page.
Images
Search results
- no citation.
On species page.
Overview tab
- Photo by
- Rights
- Source.
On individual image view
- Photo by
- License
- Rights
- Source.
Gallery tab
- Images – No citation
- Videos (currently only contains links to videos hosted on the IBC)
- Video By
- License
- Rights
- Source.
Names Tab
- Indicates source(s) and link to website
Records Tab
- Indicates Data set.
Spatial layers
Spatial layers available in the Atlas spatial portal includes environmental and biodiversity surfaces as well as area layers from the gazetteer.
Info popup:
- Metadata contact organisation
- Resource constraints
- License notes
- More information (where this links to a comprehensive metadata record it will contain details rights and citation information.