Purpose
This document is intended to provide clarity on what data can be shared using Symbiota Support Hub (SSH)-hosted Symbiota-based1 data portals2 (“Symbiota portals”) and how the data can be used. If you opt to share or use data3 hosted on SSH-managed infrastructure, you are agreeing to the following terms and conditions of participating in the Symbiota network. This document is not legally binding and is subject to change at the discretion of the SSH.
For data users
Making data available requires significant resources on the part of data providers. It is the responsibility of data users to respect and abide by the data use policies made available by data providers in Symbiota data portals. Specifically, most Symbiota portals include a publicly visible data usage policy that can be located under the “Media Library” section of the Sitemap (example). These policies vary by portal but most generally describe how a given community of data providers requests to receive attribution for data accessed through their shared portal. Similarly, the preferred license and citation for each collection in a given portal can be accessed through individual collection profiles, which are also publicly accessible in most portals (example, note the “More Information” section). Some collections may additionally specify rights holder and access rights information.
If a data provider makes publicly redacted data available to a specific data user, it is the data user’s responsibility to obtain permission from the original data provider to secondarily reshare/distribute the redacted data, for example, in publications or other derivative works.
Many Symbiota portals are used to actively manage and process data. These data are made available “as is”. The SSH cannot assume responsibility for damages resulting from misuse or misinterpretation of datasets or from errors or omissions that may exist in the data. Reports of errors in the data should be directed to the original data provider (instructions).
If you have questions or require clarification about a given portal or collection’s preferred data use policy/license, contact the Portal Manager (typically described on a portal’s homepage), the contact(s) listed on the relevant collection profile(s) (instructions), or the SSH.
For data providers
A foundational principle of Symbiota is the concept of FAIR open data for the benefit of science and society. Data providers who opt to participate in SSH-hosted data portals should only share data to which they or their institution maintains legal right to do so under a Creative Commons licence (e.g., CC0, CC-BY).
Symbiota portals closely conform to the Darwin Core standard and are designed to share data associated with extant and extinct biodiversity specimens and observations. Non-biodiversity (e.g., anthropological or biomedical) data are not best-served by Symbiota portals.
Data providers who share specimen data using Symbiota portals should make an effort to maintain accurate data and metadata (e.g., collection title and description), as well as update publicly listed contacts as applicable (instructions). If you intend to discontinue maintenance of specimen or observation data in an SSH-hosted portal, please notify our Help Desk.
While the SSH takes significant precautions to keep all data maintained in SSH-hosted portals secure4, ultimately it is the responsibility of data providers to create and store backup copies of their data–including but not limited to specimen occurrences and media–shared on SSH-maintained infrastructure (instructions). The SSH will make reasonable effort to restore data in the event of incidents, such as security breaches, but cannot guarantee data recovery. By contributing data to an SSH-hosted portal, data providers are agreeing to hold the Symbiota Support Hub and the University of Kansas harmless from any consequence of the decision to make your data available through these resources.
By default, all data shared in Symbiota portals are publicly visible. It is the responsibility of data providers to redact records containing sensitive information (instructions) via available Symbiota functionalities. Additional data redaction may occur on a portal-wide (taxon-level) basis, e.g. for all records associated with a given rare or endangered species. Be aware that the SSH, in addition to designated Portal Manager(s) (i.e., users with “Superadministrator” permissions), have the ability to access all data shared in a given portal, including publicly redacted data. Requests to access redacted data in SEINet may be processed by the SSH; for this reason, data providers are strongly encouraged to keep collection contact information up to date (instructions) to receive related notifications.
Data providers who administer a collection (e.g., collection managers and curators) are strongly encouraged to register their collection with the Global Registry of Scientific Collections (or for herbaria, Index Herbariorium) and publish specimen records to the GBIF.org data portal (example). As an Associate Participant Node of GBIF, the SSH can provide assistance with both tasks.
For all registered users
If you create a user account using an SSH-hosted Symbiota portal, the information associated with your user profile (e.g., your email address) may be used to subscribe you to the SSH’s mass communication platform, MailerLite. While all users have the option to opt out of these messages, we strongly discourage active users (and especially users with administrative roles) from unsubscribing, as this system is used to communicate critical information, such as portal outage and security status updates5.
Software citation
Example citations are provided below. The SSH encourages authors and presenters to notify the SSH when Symbiota or a Symbiota portal is referenced in a scholarly work to have the citation added to Symbiota’s Zotero library.
Symbiota code (general)
Gilbert, E., et al. (2026) Symbiota [software]. Symbiota Support Hub (maintainers, https://symbiota.org). Accessible at: https://github.com/Symbiota/Symbiota
Symbiota code (versioned)
Gilbert, E., et al. (2026) Symbiota [software, Version 3.4.9]. Symbiota Support Hub (maintainers, https://symbiota.org). Accessible at: https://github.com/Symbiota/Symbiota/tree/v3.4.9
1 All Symbiota portals hosted by the SSH are based on the University of Kansas, KU / SSH-maintained version of Symbiota: https://github.com/Symbiota/Symbiota. Because Symbiota is open-source, other repositories/variants of this software exist.
2 Directory of active Symbiota portals known to the SSH: https://symbiota.org/symbiota-portals
3 “Data” includes but is not limited to specimen occurrences, observations, checklists, datasets, taxonomy, taxon profiles, and media.
4 Outlined in the SSH’s Statement on Cybersecurity: https://symbiota.org/cybersecurity
Last updated: June 2026