Darwin Core

Darwin Core (often abbreviated to DwC) is a body of data standards which function as an extension of Dublin Core for biodiversity informatics applications, establishing a vocabulary of terms to facilitate the discovery, retrieval, and integration of information about organisms, their spatiotemporal occurrence, and supporting evidence housed in biological collections. It is meant to provide a stable standard reference for sharing information on biological diversity.

By providing a well-defined standard core vocabulary, Darwin Core aims to facilitate data sharing in biodiversity research by minimizing the barriers to adoption and maximizing reusability. The terms described in this standard are a part of a larger set of vocabularies and technical specifications under development and maintained by Biodiversity Information Standards (formerly known as the Taxonomic Databases Working Group (TDWG)).