The project, "Supporting inclusive and sustainable research infrastructure for systematics (SISRIS) by connecting scientists and their specimens" is supported by a conference grant from the US National Science Foundation to Dr. Andrea Weeks (George Mason University; Ted R. Bradley Herbarium), and Drs. Shawn Zeringue-Krosnick and Twanelle Majors (Tennessee Tech University; Hollister Herbarium). It supports US-based workshops and symposia during 2023 and 2024 that 1) share new practices that improve attribution of natural history specimens and 2) highlight research advances in systematics that can be made as a consequence of improved people-data within biodiversity informatics databases.

Workshop participation at conferences is by application to this site: SISRIS WORKSHOP REGISTRATION. Workshop participants must also be registered conference participants in order to attend the events.

Participation stipends are available from the NSF award to defray the cost of attending the workshops.

Inquiries about SISRIS may be directed to SISRIS2023[at]gmail[dot]com.

• 8:00-8:10 am: Welcome and logistics
• 8:10-8:30 am Introductory remarks
• 8:30-9:45 am: Hands-on: Participants disambiguate names of collectors from underrepresented groups on the Bionomia platform and learn how to pay-it-forward.
• 9:45-10:15 am: Break
• 10:15-11:25 am: Hands-on: Participants document their own expertise and research contributions to biological research collections using Bionomia, learn how to use additional tools to augment their curriculum vitae and future publications, and learn how to track collection-level research impact.
• 11:25-11:45 am: Wikidata (optional) and WrapUp.
• 11:45-12:00 pm: Hands-on: Participants complete online workshop survey that will be emailed to each person.
• 12:00 pm: Adjourn

• 9:00-9:10 am: Welcome and logistics
• 9:10-9:30 am Introductory remarks
• 9:30-10:45 am: Hands-on: Participants disambiguate names of collectors from underrepresented groups on the Bionomia platform and learn how to pay-it-forward.
• 10:45-11:15 am: Break
• 11:15-12:25 pm: Hands-on: Participants document their own expertise and research contributions to biological research collections using Bionomia, learn how to use additional tools to augment their curriculum vitae and future publications, and learn how to track collection-level research impact.
• 12:25-12:45 pm: Wikidata (optional) and WrapUp.
• 12:45-11:00 pm: Hands-on: Participants complete online workshop survey that will be emailed to each person.
• 1:00 pm: Adjourn

• 8:00-8:10 am: Welcome and logistics
• 8:10-8:30 am Introductory remarks
• 8:30-9:45 am: Hands-on: Participants disambiguate names of collectors from underrepresented groups on the Bionomia platform and learn how to pay-it-forward.
• 9:45-10:15 am: Break
• 10:15-11:25 am: Hands-on: Participants document their own expertise and research contributions to biological research collections using Bionomia, learn how to use additional tools to augment their curriculum vitae and future publications, and learn how to track collection-level research impact.
• 11:25-11:45 am: Wikidata (optional) and WrapUp.
• 11:45-12:00 pm: Hands-on: Participants complete online workshop survey that will be emailed to each person.
• 12:00 pm: Adjourn

• 1:30-1:40 pm: Welcome and logistics
• 1:40-2:00 pm: Introductory remarks
• 2:00–3:15 pm: Hands-on: Participants disambiguate names of collectors from underrepresented groups on the Bionomia platform
• 3:15–3:45 pm: Break
• 3:45–5:05 pm: Hands-on: Participants document their own expertise and research contributions to biological research collections using Bionomia, learn how to use additional tools to augment their curriculum vitae and future publications, and learn how to track collection-level research impact.
• 5:05–5:10 pm: Next steps and concluding remarks about how to amplify this effort after the workshop.
• 5:10–5:30 pm: Hands-on: Participants complete online workshop survey that will be emailed to each person.
• 5:30 pm: Adjourn

1. Skim open-access paper Groom et al. (2020) for an overview of why disambiguating the names of collectors and identifiers of biological specimens is important for advancing scientific research and for increasing professional recognition of taxonomic expertise.
2. Watch first 31 minutes of a You-Tube video from a prior Bionomia workshop about bat specimens, as a case study explaining concepts and terminology in biodiversity informatics and Bionomia that relate to "people-data". This will allow you to hit the ground running in the upcoming workshop.
3. Set your ORCID profile to "Public".
4. Sign up as a user on Bionomia using your ORCID ID number.
5. Bring your laptop to the workshop.
6. Bring your questions.

1. Link to Our Data Set in an editable Google Sheet containing some names of historical botanical collectors in the US who have digitized specimen data posted to GBIF and who are available on Bionomia for disambiguation during the workshop. Note: this list is not exhaustive.
2. PDF of how-to directions that reiterate workshop workflow (e.g. historical attribution, claiming one's specimens, reporting institutional metrics, importing unique collector ID's back into your institution's DB). Zenodo DOI to latest version
3. ASB 2023 Group Notes for SISRIS Workshop.
4. Botany 2023 Group Notes for SISRIS Workshop.
5. Online SISRIS Workshop Group Notes for 6 August 2023.

• David Shorthouse (Bionomia). "Connecting scientists and their specimens through Bionomia."
• Deborah L Paul (University of Illinois). "Discovering together "who dunnit?": building a borderless knowledge community."
• Erica Krimmel, Holly Little. "People in the biodiversity knowledge graph and their roles in building the data connections we need."
  • Slides as PDF on Zenodo
• Katie Pearson (Symbiota Support Hub), Ed Gilbert, Jenn Yost, Greg Post, and Nico Franz. "Even more hidden figures in biodiversity specimen collections: Tracking agent contributions in Symbiota."
• Herrick Brown (Univerity of South Carolina), Zack Murrell, Michael Denslow, Andrea Weeks and Shawn Krosnick. "Strategies to enhance and sustain an established cyberinfrastructure."
• Jessica Budke (University of Tennessee-Knoxville), Hannah Bendull, and Robin Lewis. "The State of Herbarium Backlogs: Perspectives from Bryophyte Collections."
• Rebecca Dikow (Smithsonian Institution), Jenna T. B. Ekwealor, William J. B. Mattingly, Michael G. Trizna, Elizabeth Harmon, Torsten Dikow, Carlos F. Arias, Richard G. J. Hodel, Jennifer Spillane, Mirian T. N. Tsuchiya, Luis Villanueva, Alexander E. White, Madeline G. Bursell, Tiana Curry, Christelle Inema, and Kayla Geronimo-Anctil. "Let the records show: attribution of scientific credit in natural history collections."
• Andrea Weeks (George Mason University). "An exception proves the rule: Lena Artz (1891–1976) and her legacy of botanical specimens."
  • Slides as PDF and MP4 recording on Zenodo
• Janelle Burke (Howard University), Dominique Pittman-Kidd and Daniel Koenemann. "Prolific plant collectors and the HBCU legacy: Charles Parker as a case study."
• Shawn Zeringue-Krosnick (Tennessee Tech University), Olubunmi Aina, Adania Flemming, Molly Phillips, Jennifer Kovacs, Siobhan Leachman, and Makenzie E. Mabry. "Digital data sleuthing and storytelling as tools to engage students with the unsung heroes of natural history collections."

• Deborah L Paul (University of Illinois). "Discovering together "who dunnit?": building a borderless knowledge community."
  • Slides as PDF on Zenodo
• David Shorthouse (Bionomia). "Connecting scientists and their specimens through Bionomia."
  • Slides as PDF on Git Hub
• Shawn Zeringue-Krosnick (Tennessee Tech University), Olubunmi Aina, Adania Flemming, Molly Phillips, Jennifer Kovacs, Siobhan Leachman, and Makenzie E. Mabry. "Digital data sleuthing and storytelling as tools to engage students with the unsung heroes of natural history collections."
  • Slides as PDF on QUBES Hub
• Andrea Weeks (George Mason University). "An exception proves the rule: Lena Artz (1891–1976) and her legacy of botanical specimens."
  • Slides as PDF on Zenodo
• Carol Ann McCormick (The University of North Carolina). "Delving into the lives of herbarium collectors."
  • Slides as PDF on Git Hub
• Daniel Koenemann (Claflin University), Janelle Burke. "Prolific plant collectors and the HBCU legacy: Charles Parker as a case study."
• Pamela Puppo (Marshall University), Lori Thompson, and Lindsey Harper. "Uncovering hidden figures at the Marshall University Herbarium through inter-disciplinary collaborations."
  • Slides as PDF on Git Hub
• Robin Lewis (Spartanburg Community College), Hannah Bendull, and Jessica Budke. "The State of Herbarium Backlogs: Perspectives from Bryophyte Collections."
• Zack Murrell (Appalachian State Univerity), Michael Denslow, Herrick Brown, Andrea Weeks and Shawn Krosnick. "Strategies to enhance and sustain an established cyberinfrastructure."

• Bauer J, Burkhalter R, Karim T, Krimmel E, Landis M, Leachman S, Little H, Lorente M, Mills SK, Neu-Yagle N, Norton B, Paul D, Shorthouse D, Utrup J, Van Veldhuizen J, and Walker L. 2022. Guidelines for Using Wikidata to Mobilize Information about People in Collections: A Paleontology Perspective. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6977243 (See TDWG 2022 abstract)
  • View a formatted version of this document at https://paleo-data.github.io/guidelines-wikidata-people
• Biodiversity Collections Network (BCN). 2019. Extending U.S. biodiversity collections to promote research and education. American Institute of Biological Sciences, Washington, DC.
• Bionomia. 2022. Bionomia. Website https://bionomia.net/
• Rebecca Dikow, Jenna T. B. Ekwealor, William J. B. Mattingly, Michael G. Trizna, Elizabeth Harmon, Torsten Dikow, Carlos F. Arias, Richard G. J. Hodel, Jennifer Spillane, Mirian T. N. Tsuchiya, Luis Villanueva, Alexander E. White, Madeline G. Bursell, Tiana Curry, Christelle Inema, and Kayla Geronimo-Anctil. 2023. Let the records show: attribution of scientific credit in natural history collections. International Journal of Plant Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1086/724949
• European Organization For Nuclear Research, and OpenAIRE. 2013. Zenodo: Research. Shared. https://doi.org/10.25495/7gxk-rd71
• GBIF. 2022. Global biodiversity informatics facility. Website https://www.gbif.org/
• Grace, O. M., O. A. Pérez-Escobar, E. J. Lucas, M. S. Vorontsova, G. P. Lewis, B. E. Walker, L. G. Lohmann, et al. 2021. Botanical monography in the Anthropocene. Trends in Plant Science 26: 433–441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2020.12.018
• Q. J. Groom, C. O’Reilly & T. Humphrey (2014) Herbarium specimens reveal the exchange network of British and Irish botanists, 1856–1932, New Journal of Botany, 4:2, 95-103, https://doi.org/10.1179/2042349714Y.0000000041
• Groom, Q., A. Güntsch, P. Huybrechts, N. Kearney, S. Leachman, N. Nicolson, R. D. M. Page, et al. 2020. People are essential to linking biodiversity data. Database 2020: baaa072. https://doi.org/10.1093/database/baaa072
• Groom Q, Bräuchler C, Cubey RWN, Dillen M, Huybrechts P, Kearney N, Klazenga N, Leachman S, Paul DL, Rogers H, Santos J, Shorthouse DP, Vaughan A, von Mering S, Haston EM (2022) The disambiguation of people names in biological collections. Biodiversity Data Journal 10: e86089. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.10.e86089.
• Güntsch, A., Q. Groom, M. Ernst, J. Holetschek, A. Plank, D. Röpert, D. Fichtmüller, et al. 2021. A botanical demonstration of the potential of linking data using unique identifiers for people. PLOS ONE16: e0261130. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261130
• Krimmel E, Karim T, Little H, Walker LJ, Burkhalter R, Byrd C, Millhouse A, Utrup J (2021) The Paleo Data Working Group: A model for developing and sustaining a community of practice. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards 5: e74370. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.5.74370 (see link to related presentation slide deck)
• Leachman, S. 2020. Wikidata notes for bat collectors. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4724139
• Mabry, M. E., F. Zapata, D. L. Paul, P. M. O’Connor, P. S. Soltis, D. C. Blackburn, and N. B. Simmons. 2022. Monographs as a nexus for building extended specimen networks using persistent identifiers. Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists 1. https://doi.org/10.18061/bssb.v1i1.8323
• McDade, L. A., D. R. Maddison, R. Guralnick, H. A. Piwowar, M. L. Jameson, K. M. Helgen, P. S. Herendeen, et al. 2011. Biology needs a modern assessment system for professional productivity. BioScience 61: 619–625. https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2011.61.8.8
• Nicolson, N., Tucker, A. (2017). Identifying Novel Features from Specimen Data for the Prediction of Valuable Collection Trips. In: Adams, N., Tucker, A., Weston, D. (eds) Advances in Intelligent Data Analysis XVI. IDA 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10584. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68765-0_20
• ORCID. 2022. Open Researcher and Contributor ID. Website https://orcid.org/
• Prather, L. A., O. Alvarez-Fuentes, M. H. Mayfield, and C. J. Ferguson. 2004. The decline of plant collecting in the United States: A threat to the infrastructure of biodiversity studies. Systematic Botany 29: 15–28. https://doi.org/10.1600/036364404772974185
• Rohwer, V. G., Y. Rohwer, and C. B. Dillman. 2022. Declining growth of natural history collections fails future generations. PLOS Biology 20: e3001613. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001613
• Shorthouse, David P., Goodwin, Zoë, and Samanta Orellana, K. 2022. Zenodo enables a new workflow for collectors of natural history specimens. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6761723
• Thessen, A. E., M. Woodburn, D. Koureas, D. Paul, M. Conlon, D. P. Shorthouse, and S. Ramdeen. 2019. Proper attribution for curation and maintenance of research collections: Metadata recommendations of the RDA/TDWG working group. Data Science Journal 18: 54. https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-054
• Webster, M. S. 2017. The extended specimen. The Extended Specimen: Emerging frontiers in collections- based ornithological research, Studies in Avian Biology, 1–9. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315120454
• Wikidata. 2022. Wikidata. Website https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page