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…

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]

Shortly after I posted the previous example, a user add an identification to the observation. The result is what I expect. [screenshot7] [screenshot8]

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

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…

When the species ID was added, the user would have been shown a pop-up prompting them to [possibly] explicitly disagree with the ssp. ID. They did not choose this option, and thus why the behaviour occurred. Another user has since added a species ID, but did explicitly disagree with the ssp., so you…

Ok thanks, I might in fact not have done so (popup) when I did that species level ID. But I find it still confusing that my species level ID (and lacking disagreement with subsp. ID) triggered the observation to become RG on subsp. level. I would have expected it to become RG on species level, eve…

Yes, it happens a lot now, if first id is ssp. next one will make it RG, it should be fixed!

Research Grade with only one ID at that rank

Bug Reports

bouteloua March 27, 2021, 2:54am 25

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

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	1039	August 1, 2026
Leading subspecies IDs should change the obs taxon like leading IDs of other ranks Feature Requests issue-made , implemented	115	11464	February 24, 2023
Why is this Observation Casual/Needs ID/Research Grade? - "Official" Topic General web	354	22047	July 22, 2026
Users are (understandably) saying they "disagree" General	60	1418	July 23, 2026

Research Grade with only one ID at that rank

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