Wish list for name matching services

Wish list for name matching services

Terminology

• candidates are returned partial matches, as opposed to exact matches
• canonical name
• asynchronous output

General

Input

• Allow input of a pasted column of names
• Allow upload of a table with names (dialogue: name bearing column[s])
• Allow upload of any other column
• Allow wildcards
• Allow input of name components in separate fields (at least in uploads):
  • For ICNAFP: Monomial / genus component; infrageneric rank; infrageneric epithet; species epithet; infraspecific rank; infraspecific epithet; basionym author (team); combination author (team); year of publication.
  • For ICZN: work in progress.

Matching

• If the name is entered as a string, parse the name and match the name components independently
• Avoid returning absurd candidates (names that are completely improbable)
• Exactly match the rank of the name, if unambiguous in the input – i.e. do not return a subspecies for a variety, a genus name for a family, etc.
• Allow parameters for matching (see below)

Output

• In asynchronous mode, return matched records and candidates in a single table
• In asynchronous mode, return all input columns with matching results
• weigh probabilities hierarchically:
  • e.g., in a species name, a full or near full match on a genus name is more important than that of the species epithet (epithets may be used in many genera).

Parameters for exact matches

• optional (ICNAFP): accept IPNI, Tropicos and full spaced author abbreviations as exact matches
• optional (ICNAFP): ignore ex authors (the author or team preceeding the ex)
• optional (ICNAFP): ignore hybrid symbol (or “x” space/space “x” space) in name
• optional (ICNAFP): ignore authors in autonyms
• optional: ignore endings in epithets (ICNAFP) / (species/subspecies name (ICZN)

Parameters for candidate matches

work in progress