I’ve accidentally found a way to get research grade on a species-level observation without getting two people to agree to that species-level ID. I think this is a very important bug to fix, because otherwise it could provide incorrect data to those using iNat for their research purposes. The observ…

Going forward, this will no longer happen. We’ve updated the algorithm so that an observation will no longer be Research Grade if the observation taxon and the community taxon do not match. However, this change is not being applied retroactively. So if an observation was RG before today with a comm…

Looks RG to me. Maybe it was an indexing issue and someone reindexed it? Oops now it’s Needs ID haha. I think it’s because the leading ID is a subspecies ID. It can’t be RG at subspecies with only one ID. And the way the system works it stays subspecies because that’s the first ID, even though it c…

Do you think that if the user who ID’d it to sub sp. Re entered their ID now it would re-index it? I’m not familiar with how the indexing works to a high degree.

I moved your post to this existing topic because it’s a result of the same issue. Reindexing won’t fix it, it’s caused by the subspecies now being the first ID on the observation. If the person who added the subspecies ID removes it and adds it again as the newest ID, that would fix it.

sounds good, I’ll tag them then.– Never mind I can’t because it was inat.

Even though iNat updated the ID, the original user can still withdraw it.

Given how long this thread has been active—and how many tricky edge cases it surfaces—we’ve written a separate blog post that explains our earlier attempt to fix the long-standing “Research Grade with only one ID at that rank” issue. The post also walks through best practices for navigating the situ…

Could you please say more about the new URL parameters? I can’t tell what they are from following your link. Thanks!

These parameters filter observations based on whether they fail specific Data Quality Assessment (DQA) checks: fails_dqa_accurate – filters for observations that fail the “location is accurate” check. fails_dqa_date – filters for those that fail the “date is accurate” check. fails_dqa_evide…

Challenging to forensic back to what that identifier intended at the time. Good as can be - should be RG at ?

Research Grade with only one ID at that rank

Bug Reports

jwidness January 15, 2026, 7:17pm 134

Update on the iNat blog: https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/122781-proposed-change-to-subspecies-labels-try-the-demo-and-vote

Topic		Replies	Views
An observation is showing Research Grade, but it is not apparently supported by two IDs Bug Reports web	24	1277	October 4, 2025
DQA Discussion --- an observation cannot be “Research Grade” and “Needs ID” at the same time General	66	1045	August 1, 2026
Leading subspecies IDs should change the obs taxon like leading IDs of other ranks Feature Requests issue-made , implemented	115	11465	February 24, 2023
Why is this Observation Casual/Needs ID/Research Grade? - "Official" Topic General web	354	22054	July 22, 2026
Users are (understandably) saying they "disagree" General	60	1426	July 23, 2026

Research Grade with only one ID at that rank

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