Unique Identifiers: improving the database for data science

[thebeachcomber]

@chlorophilia

On a related note, there are many cases of multiple synonymous entities being registered at once on iNaturalist. Good examples include instances where nominate varieties or subspecies are registered alongside species names. For example, we have Veronica peregrina ssp. peregrina registered as well as Veronica peregrina, each with distinct unique identifiers. This is problematic because both names correspond with the same taxon: Veronica peregrina ssp. peregrina = Veronica peregrina. And there are many, many cases of this issue being replicated throughout iNaturalist’s database. This is a really bad curatorial practice, resulting in unnecessary redundancy in the database: we are creating a mess for data scientists who have to implement swaps to unify observations under these two discrete taxon IDs, which represent the same entity.

Maybe I’m misinterpreting what you’re saying, but this is not correct. Whilst all V. peregrina ssp. peregrina fall within V. peregrina, the opposite is not true. The existence of a nominate subspecies implies that there must also be other subspecies, in which case some observations of V. peregrina may correspond to this other infraspecific entity. So they do not represent the same entity.