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…

Mac OS, Chrome browser Observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40276969 Unless I’m missing something, the displayed taxon name below should be “Trillium ovatum,” not “Trillium ovatum var. ovatum.” [screenshot1] [screenshot2]

Unless the observer opts out of Community ID, or there is disagreement among the IDs, I believe the name at the top always represents the current “Leading ID” or “observation ID,” while the current community taxon is displayed below at right. It was mentioned in another topic that the Research Grad…

I’m not sure who you answer to, but it should work like that: [image] [image] Not subspecies or variation, but species RG.

Here’s another example that displays the wrong taxon at Research Grade. Observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40992503 [screenshot3] [screenshot4]

For comparison, here’s an example that works the way I expect. Observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38654216 [screenshot5] [screenshot6]

I would guess it’s by design that the 2nd ID in this example wouldn’t “knock back” the observer’s original, more refined ID, to species. As @jdmore says, another of many issues with the difference between Observation Taxon (what’s at the top of the page) and the Community Taxon (on the righthand si…

Found a similar one, yes, it’s about Observation Taxon. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41114108

(I merged some posts from a related bug report here.)

We also notice this problem in this example: https://inaturalist.lu/observations/72988618 The observer added it with a subspecies (which definitely does not occurrent in the region) determination, I then added the correct species ID, which lead to the record becoming RG with the subsp. ID, which al…

Research Grade with only one ID at that rank

Bug Reports

trscavo March 29, 2020, 11:16pm 22

Shortly after I posted the previous example, a user add an identification to the observation. The result is what I expect.

Topic		Replies	Views
An observation is showing Research Grade, but it is not apparently supported by two IDs Bug Reports web	24	1276	October 4, 2025
DQA Discussion --- an observation cannot be “Research Grade” and “Needs ID” at the same time General	66	1041	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	22052	July 22, 2026
Users are (understandably) saying they "disagree" General	60	1424	July 23, 2026

Research Grade with only one ID at that rank

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