LPSN offers bulk downloads of nomenclatural information in standard formats such as CSV (comma-separated values). The usage of these files underlies the LPSN copyright. Login is required but registration is free. See also the LPSN API.
The GSS (genus-species-subspecies) format contains the following data columns.
| Column | Content | Column in former PNU Excel table | Equivalent? | Can be missing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| genus_name | Name of a genus, or genus name within the name of a species or subspecies. | GENUS | yes | no |
| sp_epithet | Species epithet within the name of a species or subspecies. | SPECIES | yes | yes |
| subsp_epithet | Subspecies epithet within the name of a subspecies. | SUBSPECIES | yes | yes |
| reference | Literature reference for the valid publication of the name. | REFERENCE | no (now more informative) | no |
| status | Semicolon-separated list including the kind of publication (AL := Approved Lists, VL := Validation List, VP := Validly Published by having an effective publication in IJSB/IJSEM), the kind of proposal, the nomenclatural status and the taxonomic status of the name. | STATUS | no (now more informative) | no |
| authors | Author(s) and year of the valid publication of the name as well as author(s) and years of emendations of the description of the name, if any. | AUTHORS | yes | no |
| address | URL of the LPSN page on which more information on the name is found. Note that websites that make use of this part of the data must link to this address; see the LPSN copyright for details. If the address is not a complete URL, "https://lpsn.dsmz.de/" must be prepended. | REMARKS | no (remarks are now found on the linked LPSN page) | no |
| risk_grp | Risk group associated with the name according to the regulations of the Federal Republic of Germany. | RISK_GRP | yes | yes |
| nomenclatural_type | For species and subspecies, collection number(s) and/or strain designations of the type strain; for genera, record number of the type species, thus linking to another row in the same table. | TYPE_STRAINS | no (now more informative) | no |
| record_no | Numeric identifier for the entry; unique within the table and used for linking within the table. | RECORD_NO | yes | no |
| record_lnk | Record number of the correct name (the name currently in use), thus linking to another row in the same table. | RECORD_LNK | yes | yes |
The placeholder "PENDING" may be used in case a certain piece of information is not yet available.
All synonyms are linked to each other via an entry in the record_lnk column. Homotypic synonyms are linked via record_lnk and also have an identical entry in the column nomenclatural_type. Moreover, if the status column includes "comb. nov." and the authors column includes an authority in parentheses, then another entry that can be linked via record_lnk is the basonym of the given name if its authority is identical to the one indicated in parentheses for the given name. Names with the same basonym are always homotypic synonyms. For details see the LPSN glossary.
The CSV file is supposed to be easy to use. For instance, the CSV file can be read by R using the read.csv function with default parameters. The "Excel" file can be read by spreadsheet software. In case of trouble try modifying the quote character.