data sharing

[R. Zander]

Another problem with obtaining data from constantly changing sources is that
there is no way to effectivly cite the source in a scientific paper, unless the
whole dataset (or somehow just the changes over time) is archived after every
change and each instance (wrong or not) is retrievable and has a document name.
The use of online data sets is then limited to being an informal guide to, say,
organizing your herbarium, new synonymy, and so on.

Any information in a constantly changing data set that might be used in a
publication requires an archived source and so requires a reference in the online
data set. Sounds complex, but this is the same problem with citing html documents
on the web in the bibliography of scientific papers...a couple months pass and
they are gone or much changed.

R. Zander

Hugh Wilson wrote:
 However, systematic data - regardless of

> source - are constantly changing.  Thus, any effort to 'grab' data
> from an unknowing but active source will only produce an outdated
> resource in that updates will always be generated the folks that are
> really doing the work.  The ITIS 'standard' for vascular plants is,
> for instance, an old (1994 I think) version of the BONAP data set.