Taxacom: a class of errors in Worms (and similar databases)

[Geoff Read]

You are a highly selective quoter Erikjan. Don't like that. Please leave other's messages as they were sent.

Don't worry. I think someone in the DMT at WoRMS will learn about your hunt for absent parenthesis even if you are not willing to contact them directly.

But if you are then WoRMS staff are at info at marinespecies.org

Cheers,
Geoff
--
Geoffrey B. Read, Ph.D.
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
gread at actrix.gen.nz



>---- Original Message ----
>From: Erikjan Rijkers <er at xs4all.nl>
>To: "Geoff Read" <gread at actrix.gen.nz>
>Cc: "Taxacom" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
>Sent: Mon, Feb 24, 2025, 6:50 PM
>Subject: Re: Taxacom: a class of errors in Worms (and similar databases)
>
>Op 2/24/25 om 00:06 schreef Geoff Read:
>> perhaps not a good example of the general situation in a database
>
>Perhaps - but it's not exactly an accidental error:
>
>Of the names in the GBIF backbone file (admittedly from 202308) which 
>has 2,614,593 accepted species names (in 268,274 genera), there is more 
>than 1 % erroneously unparenthesized.
>
> From GBIF name records that have status='ACCEPTED':
>
>[...]
>Zygopleura Koken, 1892  | Zygopleura plebia Herrick, 1887
>Zygosoma Labbé, 1899    | Zygosoma gibbosum Greeff, 1880
>Zygota Förster, 1856    | Zygota congener Zetterstedt, 1840
>Zynodes Whalley, 1970   | Zynodes strigerella Hampson, 1903
>Zyzzyva T.L.Casey, 1922 | Zyzzyva squamosa C.H.Boheman, 1844
>(28836 rows)
>
>The 'accepted' names from checklistbank.org (from 202502) are 0.5% 
>erroneously unparenthesized (~13,000 names).
>
>> 
>> In WoRMS I think a general search for instances of lack of parenthesis where there is a younger genus name requires the WoRMS database managers to do the search. Editors & users don't have the complex search capability to find the mismatches.
>> 
>> So, as Mark Costello suggested, an approach to the WoRMS data team to investigate for other instances would be a great idea.
>
>Surely the biologists/curators (who I would expect might be on TAXACOM) 
>should instruct their own technical people.
>
>Erikjan