The Access to Biological Collections Data (ABCD) Schema is an evolving comprehensive standard for the access to and exchange of data about specimens and observations (a.k.a. primary biodiversity data). The ABCD Schema attempts to be comprehensive and highly structured, supporting data from a wide variety of databases. It is compatible with several existing data standards. Parallel structures exist so that either (or both) atomised data and free-text can be accommodated.
The ABCD Schema was ratified as a standard by the Biodiversity Information Standards Taxonomic Databases Working Group (TDWG) in 2005. It was developed as a community-driven effort, with contributions from CODATA, BioCASE and GBIF among other organizations.
ABCD Zoology is an application profile of ABCD tailored for use in zoological contexts. It was the first official application profile to use the RDF-based version 3.0 of ABCD.
An extension of the ABCD standard for DNA data.
An extension of the ABCD standard for Geosciences data.
An extension to ABCD 2.06, it is designed to allow the storage and transmission of herbarium plant specimen data.
The BioCASE Biological Unit Network provides access to a transnational network of biological collections; its protocol requires providers to use the ABCD schema in their configuration files.
Established by a global network of countries and organizations, GBIF is a web portal promoting and facilitating the mobilization, access, discovery and use of biodiversity data. The preferred format for publishing data to the GBIF network is the Darwin Core Archive, and its Integrated Publishing Toolkit uses EML as its data standard.
The GeoCASe Network provides access to a transnational network of palaeontological, mineralogical, and geological data; providers are required to use ABCDEFG, an extention of ABCD, in their configuration files.