[Taxacom] Finding your species in Mendeley

[Roderic Page]

To be clear, I'm not claiming that simply linking names to digitised literature is all we need to do. But it does make the origin of names more transparent, and the act of making the links can expose errors (such as incorrect citations, or incorrectly transcribed names).

Yes, we also want judgements on whether two names are synonyms, etc., but again I'd like these linked to the literature. For example, the Amphibian Species of the World http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/ provides detailed lists of the synonyms and usages of a name, coupled with literature citations. I want those linked as well so that I can follow the evidence and arguments.

Claims that every name needs to be checked manually by experts strike me as untenable. That simply won't scale. I'm less concerned about information being  "authoritative" than information being "accessible". 

Regards

Rod


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Roderic Page
Professor of Taxonomy
Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine
College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences
Graham Kerr Building
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK

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