Instance of (P31) #3
Description
There are at least two ways the type of research expedition can be modelled in Wikidata via the "instance of" property (P31).
One option is to have or create items for each of the types of research expeditions and then link these in a knowledge tree via “subclass of” property. For example botanical expedition is a subclass of a research expedition which is itself a subclass of an expedition. The expedition item would be linked to the particular type of subclass e.g. botanical expedition via the property "instance of" (P31).
Currently (as at 9 May 2025) there are 23 expedition items that have an "instance of" statement of oceanographic cruise (oceanographic cruise Q130475091) See this Wikidata query.
With this approach, a difficulty arises when an expedition collects data and specimens from multiple disciplines. That is the research expedition may be a botanical expedition, a geological expedition and a zoological expedition all at the same time. Community practice in Wikidata attempts to restrict the use of the “instance of” property to a single statement which would encourage editors to use the more general “research expedition” item thus restricting the requested descriptive data being added to Wikidata.
The other option is to use the more general statement “instance of” “research expedition” and then define the type of expedition via the "field of work" property (P101).
Wiki:See instance of (P31) for the Research Expeditions Working Group Wiki page.