Curate shared libraries

Taxons, People, Bibliographic References, Locations, Traits, and vernacular names are installation-wide libraries. Search before creating, and remember that a global correction may affect many Datasets.

External Taxon validation

Full users may validate a Project, Dataset, or taxonomic root. Work on a small scope, inspect the UserJob, separate safe results from conflicts and missing Taxons, and choose a source appropriate to the group. Review Index Fungorum for fungi, Tropicos and IPNI for plants, and use GBIF as a broad source without assuming it resolves every conflict. Accept parent changes only when the local hierarchy should change. Apply permitted changes and submit suggestions for the others. Conflicts between sources require curatorial judgment.

Duplicate-Taxon merging is restricted to super administrators. Compare authorship, publication, validity, accepted name, parent, external keys, and descendant use. Homonyms and distinct concepts are not duplicates.

Shared Locations

Countries, administrative units, protected areas, Indigenous lands, environmental layers, plots, and transects are shared. Search name, hierarchy, type, and geometry first. Do not duplicate a country or municipality merely for another spelling or language. Coordinate new countries and large administrative imports with super administrators because they affect parent detection and coordinate validation.

For protected or environmental layers, record source, date, geometry version, and correct type; use WGS84; validate polygons; and check overlaps and existing versions. For plots and transects, use distinctive names and verify parent, geometry, orientation, dimensions, subplots, search width, datum, and units.

Some imports automatically create point Locations from Individual coordinates. Check whether that mechanism fits before creating points in bulk. Full users may edit Locations only while they have no linked Individuals, Vouchers, Measurements, or Media. Once used, only a super administrator may alter them; deletion also requires no descendants or related data.

Duplicate People and References

Search name variants, abbreviation, institution, email, and ORCID before creating a Person. Super administrators may merge duplicates and redirect collection, authorship, identification, measurement, expertise, and unpublished name relationships. Confirm the same real person, select the most complete primary record, inspect User links and conflicting roles, then review all relationships. Never merge homonyms.

Search DOI and BibTeX key before creating a Bibliographic Reference. If either already exists, compare and correct the existing record when it represents the same publication; do not change a key just to force a duplicate.

Vernacular names

Record language and use citations for source, context, and regional variation. The same spelling in different languages or regions does not necessarily express the same use. Full users may create names; ordinary users may edit only their own, and deletion is blocked by citations owned by others. Search name and language, inspect linked objects, and prefer adding a relationship or citation to creating a duplicate.