[Nhcoll-l] Vouchers and specimen citation tracking

[Lazo-Wasem, Eric]

Hi Nate,

Beginning in 1983 when I first arrived at Yale, I started tracking all cited specimens, not just the primary and secondary types, but also the tertiary types, using the term "Hypotype" for any specimens specifically cited in a paper; I was a master at writing 3 pt print with a technical pen in the "remarks" field of our ledgers.  As time and electronica databases developed, I now have copies of the articles published (often more than one) linked via a bibliographic module for quick reference of an attached PDF document.

I do not feel one can be "too liberal" with regards to citational history.  If a specimen has been used in a study but not specifically listed by number, but in a more general way e.g. "specimens used are deposited in the Invertebrate Collections......" I broaden my term to "voucher."  Some may feel that is overkill, but why not record that a suite of specimens has been used as the basis, in part, of someone's dissertation or some broad phylogeny paper whereby inidivual numbers are not used of recorded.

I think the link to "stable URL" is ok, but I had a 500 hi-quality images linked to an electronic version of the Keys to the Invertebrates of the Woods Hole Region disappear over night from the document "hotlinks" when a URL changed before anyone thought to check with me.  I have yet to find time to rebuild those links! Point is, perhaps keeping a pdf on a local drive is warranted; I currently use a relatively inexepensive external Western Digital 16 TB My Book Duo for local storage of documents and images, despite the assurances that those data migrating to the University cloud are safe.

Sounds like you are thinking  through the situation.

Regards, Eric

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Shoobs, Nate
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2023 7:16 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Vouchers and specimen citation tracking

Dear colleagues,
Question for you: how do you record whether a specimen has been cited in the literature, and what do you consider a citation of a specimen to be?

At OSUM, I've been taking a very liberal approach to specimen citations - that is, even if the specimen is not cited by number in the body of a text, if data from that occurrence/record was used in a paper, the specimen record has the citation added, with info on the page, graph, or plate where the specimen is used/figured/, if possible.
I store all this info in one field, a standardized citation string that includes the doi and the page and figure number where applicable. For papers in BHL or other sites with stable URLs, I include the link to the page in the paper itself.

I'm curious how in-depth others on this list go when recording citation data for specimens. My goal is 'extending the specimens' for users of the collection, and also tracking citations for impact reasons.
Best,
Nate
--
[The Ohio State University]
Nathaniel F. Shoobs
Curator of Mollusks
College of Arts & Sciences Dept. of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology
Museum of Biological Diversity, 1315 Kinnear Rd, Columbus, OH 43212
614-688-1342 (Office)
mbd.osu.edu<http://mbd.osu.edu/>
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