Standards
Biological taxonomy is not fixed, and opinions about the correct status of taxa at all levels, and their correct placement, are constantly revised as a result of new research. Many aspects of classification will always remain a matter of scientific judgment. The ITIS database is updated to take account of new research as it becomes available, and the information it yields is likely to represent a fair consensus of modern taxonomic opinion.
Records within ITIS include information about how far it has been possible to check and verify them. Its information should be checked against other sources where these are available, and against the primary research scientific literature where possible.
Read more about this topic: Integrated Taxonomic Information System
Famous quotes containing the word standards:
“A generation which has passed through the shop has absorbed standards and ambitions which are not of those of spaciousness, and cannot get away from them. Everything with them is done as though for sale, and they naturally have in view the greatest possible benefit, profit and that end of the stuff that will make the best show.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“As long as our people quote English standards they dwarf their own proportions.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Barbarism is the absence of standards to which appeal can be made.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)