InvaCost: Economic cost estimates associated with biological invasions worldwide.

InvaCost is the most
up-to-date, comprehensive, standardized and robust data compilation and
description of economic cost estimates associated with invasive species
worldwide1. InvaCost has been constructed to provide a contemporary
and freely available repository of monetary impacts that can be relevant for
both research and evidence-based policy making. The ongoing work made by the
InvaCost consortium2,3,4 leads to constantly improving the structure
and content of the database (see sections below). The list of actual
contributors to this data resource now largely exceeds the list of authors
listed in this page. All details regarding the previous version of Invacost (version
3.0) can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12668570.v3.

CONTENT: This page
contains four files: (1) 'InvaCost_database_v4.0' which contains the 13,123 cost
entries depicted by 65 descriptive columns; (2) ‘Descriptors 4.0’ provides full
definition and details about the descriptive columns used in the database; (3)
‘Update_Invacost_4.0’ has details about the all the changes made between
previous and current versions of InvaCost; (4) ‘InvaCost_updates_template_4.0’
(downloadable file) provides an easier way of entering data in the spreadsheet,
standardizing all the terms used on it as much as possible to avoid mistakes
and saving time at post-refining stages (this file should be used by any
external contributor to propose new cost data).

METHODOLOGY: All the
methodological details and tools used to build and populate this database are
available in Diagne et al. 20201 and Angulo et al. 20215.

UPDATES: InvaCost is regularly
updated with contributions from both authors and future users in order to
improve it both quantitatively (by new cost information) and qualitatively (if
errors are identified). Any reader or user can propose to update InvaCost by
filling the ‘InvaCost_updates_template’ file with new entries or corrections, and
sending it to our email address ([e-mail]). Each updated public
version of InvaCost is stored in this figShare repository, with a unique
version number. For this purpose, we consider the original version of InvaCost
publicly released in September 2020 as ‘InvaCost_1.0’. The further updated
versions are named using the subsequent numbering (e.g., ‘InvaCost_2.0’,
InvaCost_2.1’) and all information on changes made are provided in a dedicated
file called ‘Updates-InvaCost’ (named using the same numbering, e.g.,
‘Updates-InvaCost_2.0’, ‘Updates-InvaCost_2.1’). We consider changing the first
level of this numbering (e.g. ‘InvaCost_3.x’ ‘InvaCost_4.’x) only when the
structure of the database changes. Every user wanting to have the most
up-to-date version of the database should refer to the latest released version.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Every
user should read the ‘Usage notes’ section of Diagne et al. 20201 before
considering the database for analysis purposes or specific interpretation.
InvaCost compiles cost data published in the literature, but does not aim to
provide a ready-to-use dataset for specific analyses. While the cost data are
described in a homogenized way in InvaCost, the intrinsic disparity,
complexity, and heterogeneity of the cost data require specific data processing
depending on the user objectives. However, we provide necessary information and
caveats about recorded costs, and we have now an open-source software designed
to query and analyse this database6.

CAUTION: InvaCost is
currently being analysed by a network of international collaborators in the
frame of the InvaCost project2,3,4. Interested users may contact the
authors if they wish to learn more about or contribute to these current
efforts. Users are in no way prevented from performing their own independent
analyses and collaboration with this network is not required. Nonetheless,
users and contributors are encouraged to contact the authors before using the
database, as the information contained may not be directly implementable for
specific analyses.

RELATED LINKS AND
PUBLICATIONS:

1 Diagne, C.,
Leroy, B., Gozlan, R.E. et al. InvaCost, a public database of the economic costs of
biological invasions worldwide. Sci Data 7, 277 (2020).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-00586-z

2 Diagne C, Catford JA,
Essl F, Nuñez MA, Courchamp F (2020) What are the economic costs of biological
invasions? A complex topic requiring international and interdisciplinary
expertise. NeoBiota 63: 25–37. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.63.55260

3 Researchgate page:
https://www.researchgate.net/project/InvaCost-assessing-the-economic-costs-of-biological-invasions

4 InvaCost workshop:
https://www.biodiversitydynamic

5 Angulo E,
Diagne C, Ballesteros-Mejia L. et al. (2021) Non-English languages enrich scientific
knowledge: the example of economic costs of biological invasions. Science of
the Total Environment 775:144441.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144441

6Leroy B, Kramer A M,
Vaissière A-C, Courchamp F and Diagne C (2020) Analysing global economic costs
of invasive alien species with the invacost R package. BioRXiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.10.419432