Unique Identifiers

Status

!! UNREVIEWED DRAFT TEXT !! Do not cite or reference until marked as reviewed.

Comments

Darwin Core has several terms for recording identifiers for specimens. These are organized in pairs:

1. institutionID/institutionCode
2. collectionID/collectionCode
3. datasetID/datasetName
4. occurrenceID/catalogNumber

The ID terms are meant to reference URIs or other globally unique identifiers for institutions, collections and datasets.
Darwin Core QA guidelines for identifier terms.

The Darwin Core paleo recommended best practice is for occurrenceID to be a URI or some other form of globally unique identifier. Darwin Core best practice is to create one by concatenating institutionCode:collectionCode:catalogNumber.