15  Publishing

traits.build is an R package that was first developed to build AusTraits, a harmonised, open-source database of Australian plant traits. The code has been transformed into a standalone package allowing anyone to build a relational, tabular database for any taxonomic group and any collection of traits.

The project’s guiding principles are to:

1. Create open-source, harmonised, reproducible databases from disparate datasets.
2. Provide a fully transparent workflow.
3. Offer a relational database structure that fully documents the contextual data essential to interpreting ecological data.
4. Offer a straightforward, robust template for building a trait dictionary.
5. Offer a database structure that is flexible enough to accommodate the complexities inherent to ecological data.
6. Offer a database structure that is underlain by a documented ontology, ensuring each database field is interpretable and interoperable with other databases and data structures.