Taxacom: an idea on data reuse preprint for systematics

[Kuoi Zhang]

Hello

I'm writing to share an idea and gauge interest from the community.

As someone working in taxonomy and systematics, I?ve often felt that our field lacks an appropriate venue for rapidly sharing certain types of valuable contributions, such as synonym updates, reanalyses of existing phylogenetic or evolutionary data, or independent replications of published results. These efforts are essential for ensuring the integrity, reproducibility, and long-term reliability of taxonomic knowledge, yet they are often underappreciated in traditional publishing channels.
To address this gap, I?m considering the creation of a small, community-driven preprint platform focused specifically on taxonomy, systematics, and data reuse. The platform would not accept new data unless it's used to illustrate problems in previously published work. The goal is to provide a dedicated space where researchers can openly and transparently share new synonymies, reanalyzed phylogenetic trees or other data, or highlight data ambiguities.

In this vision, repeatability, data verification, and nomenclatural clarification are treated with the same importance as the description of new taxa, because all of these activities are essential to making taxonomy a more scientific and self-correcting discipline.

I have the technical expertise to set up and maintain a Linux server, but community involvement would be critical, especially in terms of discussion, organization, and possibly sponsorship if the platform becomes active.

If this idea resonates with you, or even if you have concerns or alternative suggestions. I would deeply appreciate your feedback. Please feel free to respond either here on the list or privately via email (guoyi.zhang at austmus dot gov dot au). If there?s enough interest, I?d be happy to coordinate a small discussion group to explore the idea further.

This might be a crazy idea. Without the support of the community, this cannot move forward.

Best regards
Guoyi

Guoyi Zhang (she/her), MRes, PhD candidate
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School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of New South Wales
Australian Museum Research Institute
Australian Museum