Annual report

6.Bibliographic Production

7.Progress Indicators

Table . Growth of the number of data available online (December, 2009)

Another interesting parameter is the number of herbaria in each state that are participating in this project and are sharing their data (Figure ). One can see that important states are not represented such as Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul, just to mention two. These should be object of an action plan in the near future.

Figure . Number of herbaria participating of the INCT Project sharing their data online per Brazilian State (December, 2009)

The next indicators include all herbaria data, e.g. INCT project added to all others, in order to be able to analyze the indicators based on data that are openly available and accessible to all.

Figure . Number of records per geographic region of Brazil (Source: speciesLink 10/12, 2009)

The southeast is the best represented region with 0.79 records per km², followed by the South Northeast, Center-West and the North which is the third largest region in terms of the number of records contributed but last in terms of records per km² (0.09) . This region includes important centers such as Embrapa and Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi that must be integrated to the network.

Figure . Number of records per Brazilian State (Source: speciesLink December 10, 2009)

All states are represented even when there are no collections from that state sharing their data through the network. This fact shows the importance of data sharing where each state benefits from local samples and associated data deposited in collections located in other states.

The indicator of the types (Figure ) demonstrates the use of a data field for observations and demonstrates the necessity to train people working with data input on the use of standards. One can see that this field was filled out with terms such as “possible” or “probable”, when this should be expressed in an observation field.

Figure . Graphic with the number of types available on line (Source: speciesLink 10/12, 2009)

The “family” indicator (Figure ) presents the 20 families most collected, based only on online data. Throughout the Project more detailed reports should be produced to evaluate taxonomic and geographic information gaps.

Figure . Graphic with the 20 families with most online data (Source: speciesLink December 10, 2009)

To evaluate the cost to digitize data of the herbaria that are already making their data online there is another indicator called “databasing” (Figure ).

Figure . Percentage of off-line data from participating herbaria

Some studies indicate a cost of R$ 2.00 per exsiccate just considering man power costs. So for this cost we have an estimate of R$ 3.6 million to fully computerize these holdings.