Open Access

Gerwin Kasperek, Marco Schmidt

• Biodiversity research heavily relies on recent and older literature, and the data contained therein. Despite great effort, large parts of the literature and the data it holds are still not available in appropriate formats needed for efficient compilation and analysis. As a part of the current funding strategy of the German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), and resulting from an extensive dialogue with the scientific community in Germany, a "Specialised Information Service" (Fachinformationsdienst, FID) for Biodiversity Research will be established with the objective of making further segments of literature about biodiversity available in up-to-date formats. This project, starting 2017, is conducted by the University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg (Frankfurt/Main, Germany) together with the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and the Text Technology Lab of the Goethe University (Frankfurt/Main). The new Specialised Information Service for Biodiversity Research (FID Biodiversitätsforschung) comprises four core elements: (A) A text mining approach which encompasses advanced text technologies and a large body of 20th century literature; (B) the digitisation of selected German biodiversity literature; (C) a platform für Open Access journals; and (D) Acquisition of specialised print literature.