Measuring the quality of species list governance
Abstract Taxonomic lists are important tools for efficient communication about biodiversity. The processes by which they are created and maintained need to be robust, scientifically sound, and transparent. Articulating and scoring a set of governance quality indicators provides a way to assess the relative strengths of list management, gives list users a means to assess the quality of this process, augments the information available to list aggregators, and allows patterns to be measured over time and among forms of life. Based on published principles, we created 12 governance quality indicators which we tested on 16 lists spanning a range of taxonomic groups. Independence of taxonomy from nomenclature scored most strongly, but scores for local and regional involvement were lower. The governance quality indicators may eventually provide a rubric for assessing best practice species list governance but now need a period of further testing, review, and refinement before they are institutionalized.
Authors
- Ronell R. Klopper (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0948-5038)
- Aaron M. Lien (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5131-688X)
- Olaf Bánki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6197-9951)
- Philip Thomas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0765-8801)
- Patrice Bouchard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7443-4547)
- Peter Paul van Dijk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7283-7000)
- Scott L. Thomson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4612-0799)
- Nina Wambiji (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7775-5300)
- Alex J. Berryman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1273-7184)
- L. Vandepitte (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8160-7941)
- Stephen Thomas Garnett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0724-7060)
- John S. Buckeridge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6510-5629)
- Stijn Conix (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1487-0213)
- Craig Hilton‐Taylor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1163-1425)
- Donald Hobern (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6492-4016)
- Les L. Christidis
- Saroj Kanta Barik
- Lauren Raz
- Thomas Pape
- Haylee Crawford-Weaver
- Claire Johnston
- Andreas Kroh
- Marianne Le Roux
- Richard L Pyle
- Neil L Evenhuis
- Frank E Zachos
- María Marta Cigliano
Institutions
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Natural History Museum Vienna (AT)
- Flanders Marine Institute (BE)
- Bernice P. Bishop Museum (US)
- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (CA)
- University of Arizona (US)
- Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (GB)
- Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (BR)
- North Eastern Hill University (IN)
- University of the Free State (ZA)
- Charles Darwin University (AU)
- Universidad Nacional de Colombia (CO)
- South African National Biodiversity Institute (ZA)
- MIT University (MK)
- International Union for Conservation of Nature (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Natural History Museum Aarhus (DK)
- Catalytic Materials (United States) (US)
- National Biodiversity Institute (CR)
- Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (AU)
- Wildlife Information Liaison Development (IN)
- BirdLife international (GB)
- Mpala Research Center and Wildlife Foundation (KE)
- Southern Cross University (AU)
- Universidad Nacional de La Plata (AR)
- UCLouvain (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- BioScience
- Published
- 2025-05-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf071
- Primary Topic
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00