[NHCOLL-L:1770] Re: GenBank

[Jim Croft]

This is also a failure of journal editorial policy...

It is all very well to require to require that sequences must be lodged 
with Genbank, but if you do not know, or can not independently verify what 
the sequence is of, then your scientific evidence, well... isn't.

This is especially important in biodiversity and systematic studies where 
the taxa may not be well known or are not unequivocal. The editors and 
reviewers should have picked up that that the trail of evidence was broken 
and that  a voucher or reference specimen should have been cited in the 
paper.   It would be nice if Genbank could enforce this requirement 
too.  In the case below, given that the tissue was extracted from 
documented specimens, it is a egregious oversight that these specimens were 
not cited.

Having said all that, there are practical considerations - there are limits 
to the number of stuffed cows or sheep museums want to hold in their 
collections... :)

jim

>You are pretty much dependent on  the user of the specimens.  There is no 
>uniform policy or requirement.
>See:
>http://www.uaf.edu/museum/af/citing.html
>
>It's worth mentioning that individuals should be accessioned individually 
>in GenBank EVEN IF they have identical sequences.
>
>G.
>
>--
>Gordon H. Jarrell, Ph.D
>Coordinator Alaska Frozen Tissue Collection Acting Curator of Mammals
>University of Alaska Museum
>Fairbanks, Alaska USA 99775-6960
>office: (907) 474-6946
>fax: (907)474-5469
>
>Gregory Watkins-Colwell wrote:
>
>>Today I was given a reprint from somebody who borrowed YPM specimens 
>>recently and conducted a molecular analysis.  They deposited their 
>>sequences at GenBank (at the requirement of the Journal they used for the 
>>paper).  In the paper, they cite the GenBank "Accession Number" and not 
>>any museum catalog numbers.  Nowhere in the paper is there an appendix or 
>>anything indicating which sequences have voucher specimens or where those 
>>voucher specimens might be.  Has this happened to anyone else 
>>before?  Does GenBank keep any records that would link their "Accession 
>>Number" to the actual catalog number for the voucher specimen?
>>
>>Do most molecular-based journal rely entirely upon the GenBank number and 
>>not the museum catalog numbers for such things?  This just seems wrong.
>>
>>Greg
>
>~ Jim Croft ~ jrc at anbg.gov.au ~ 02-62465500 ~ www.anbg.gov.au/jrc/ ~