In the context of biological collections or taxonomy, a person may be recorded as having one or more of the following functions: Author, Collector, Determiner (taxonomic identification), Observer, Curator, Owner, Requester (e.g. loans in herbarium exchanges), Typist, Recipient, Addressee, Technician, Landowner, Taxonomic co-ordinator, Geographic co-ordinator, Staff member, etc.).
All these functions - except, perhaps, the data input - may refer to a single person or an entire team of persons (i.e. a number of person names cited in a fixed sequence). The model defines that all references to Person Team may also refer to a single Person. In addition, teams which are not composed of members can be defined (e.g. "local shepherds" as the source of a recorded common name).
Legal entities like institutions, companies, and organizations must be included in the problem domain analysis, because considerable congruence exists in functionality as well as in the attribute structure.
Fig. 1: Person-related data
See appendix in Berendsohn & al. (this volume) for attribute definitions. Note that Person Team does not contain any specific person data, but only a description of the team in case that it is not composed of defined members. The sequence of the persons in the team is defined by the attribute seniority in the entity type Person Team Member.
Figure 1 shows the resulting entity relationship model. The entity types PICO and Person Team form the most important linkage points to other entities in the CDEFD and IOPI models. For example, unit ownership, transfer, and location involves PICOs, while authorship, collecting, and taxon identification refers to Person Teams. Institutes, Companies or Organizations are frequently part of hierarchy (e.g.: an Institute is part of University). This is expressed by means of a reflexive structure. If required, the curriculum of a person as to the affiliation to institutes etc. can be recorded (Person Institutional Affiliation).