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Yuti Gao and Steve Leigh Publish Article in AJBA

ajpa.v188.4.cover

Yuti Gao (Biological Anthropology, PhD Candidate) and Professor Steve Leigh have published an article titled “Advancing Scientific Collection-Based Research With the Global Registry of Scientific Collections (GRSciColl)” in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology. The article publicizes and evaluates a new web resource designed to facilitate the use of natural history museum collections.

Abstract

Natural history museums provide unique and extremely valuable research resources. However, relatively few museums have externally discoverable records. Biological anthropologists frequently rely on materials in these collections—including skeletal remains, fossil hominins, and nonhuman primate materials—to study human evolution, functional anatomy, and genetic variation. Unfortunately, traditional means of sourcing museum resources, such as curator consultations, published references, or informal research networks, may be inefficient, biased toward certain institutions, and out of date. The Global Registry of Scientific Collections (GRSciColl), part of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), addresses these challenges by centralizing metadata on scientific collections, enabling researchers to locate research materials, reduce biases, and broaden sampling diversity. GRSciColl supports interdisciplinary collaborations, digital resource sharing, and educational applications, such as data literacy training. It also standardizes institutional references, improves provenance tracking, and data interoperability. By increasing access to collections—including to researchers lacking financial resources—GRSciColl bridges the gap between physical museum holdings and

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