LPSN user survey 2020

This page is work in progress. It lists the results of the 2020 LPSN user survey after completion of this this survey.

The table lists the priorities of the LPSN tasks that resulted from the survey. The status of each task is indicated in the last column. See also the remarks.

Group Feature Priority, Weighted (Absolute) Status
Taxon pages Textual summary of the taxonomic history of a name. 8.25 (71) Partially implemented. LPSN now provides comments about the conditions under which a name would be regarded as the correct name if it is not currently so regarded by LPSN. This does not exactly reveal the taxonomic history of a name but it treats a major aspect thereof, namely the whether the most recently proposed, validly published name is automatically the correct name (it is not).
Taxon pages Additional literature references related to the taxon, e.g. last taxonomic study in which the taxon was included, or all references that mention the taxon in title or abstract. 7.39 (66) Planning phase ongoing, implementation pending.
Scope More not validly published names (Candidatus and other). 6.88 (65) Implemented. For instance, the routines that search for names were expanded again. There is a separate page on Candidatus phyla. IJSEM Candidatus lists are regularly imported. But the number of not validly published names is huge and increasing, and data collection is not expected to be ever complete.
Taxon pages Selected genomic features of taxonomic relevance, e.g. G+C content. 7.16 (62) Planning phase ongoing, implementation pending.
Special pages Guide to phylogenetic inference and interpretation of trees. 6.24 (62) Implemented. A separate page on reconstruction and interpretation of phylogenies now treats these aspects. User comments on the new page are welcome. LPSN now also provides comments on the taxonomic terminology used by individual taxonomic studies.
Special pages More literature on taxonomy, e.g. general taxonomic advice. 5.95 (61) Implemented.1 The page on taxonomy and systematics now contains more literature references. The list of minimal standards for the description of new taxa has been updated and augmented with minutes of the meetings of the Taxonomic Subcommittees. Measures were taken to be able to continuously update these pages. Notes on the pages for the individual taxa addressed by minimal standards and meeting reports now link to these publications. User comments on these pages are welcome.
Taxon pages Selected phenotypic features of taxonomic relevance, e.g. chemotaxonomy. 6.34 (59) No decision yet.
Special pages More information on the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes. 5.84 (58) Implemented.1 The pages on nomenclature and forming names now contain more literature references, including proposals to modify the ICNP, and measures were taken to be able to continuously update these pages. Notes on the taxon pages now more regularly refer to the ICNP where appropriate. User comments on these pages are welcome.
Scope Genes other than the 16S rRNA gene, e.g. ITS, MLSA genes etc. 6.04 (57) No decision yet.
Scope Information on strains that are not type strains, e.g. other culture collection deposits. 5.86 (55) No decision yet.
Special pages More information on etymology and on forming names. 4.91 (52) Mostly implemented.1 The page on forming names now contains more literature references, including proposals to modify the ICNP, and measures were taken to be able to continuously update this page. User comments on the page are welcome.
Taxon pages More than a single 16S rRNA gene accession, if available. 4.63 (47) Postponed indefinitely.
Special pages More literature on nomenclature, e.g. list of all Requests for an Opinion. 4.13 (43) Implemented.1 The pages on Requests for an Opinion, Judicial Opinions, nomenclature, forming names and taxonomy and systematics now contain more literature references, including proposals to modify the ICNP, and measures were taken to be able to continuously update these pages and link them to taxon names where appropriate. User comments on these pages are welcome.
Scope Infrasubspecific categories such as biovar, chemovar, cultivar, genomovar, pathovar, phagovar, serovar. 3.94 (42) Postponed indefinitely.
Scope More names of Cyanobacteria (validly published under the ICN). 3.43 (40) Implemented.2 Data collection ongoing as of July 2022.

Remarks

  1. While the survey demonstrated relatively little interest of users in some of these topics, working on them is difficult to separate in practice. For instance, when collecting literature on nomenclature one automatically comes in touch with literature on forming names based on the rules of grammar and orthography. Taxonomy and nomenclature are also intermixed in the scientific literature. Moreover, these aspects are of interest for the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes, for which LPSN staff is also working.
  2. The survey also demonstrated relatively little interest of users in this topics. However, names of Cyanobacteria validly published under the ICN are since a change of the ICNP in 2021 also recognized as being validly published under the ICNP. For this reason, it is pertinent to collect names of Cyanobacteria on LPSN.

A summary of the user comments will be given here once completed.

This LPSN page was printed on 2024-04-25 04:06:56