Process for updating the ESAS species list

[peterdesmet]

Type of changes

1. New species (i.e. a new ESAS code) with all relevant information (including links to Aphia and EURING)
2. Updates to scientificName (e.g. new genus combination) based on latest taxonomic insights. This implies a change in AphiaID too, since we always want to have the same scientificName as the one in WoRMS (irrespective of the status in WoRMS)
3. Updates to English name: little effect on the rest

Effect for users

• Data are submitted with speciesCodeType and speciesCode. Those codes in submitted data will never change.
• What can change (based on changes in the species list) is the relation between that code and the scientificName (e.g. new genus combination) and the AphiaID.
• Users can use the new ESAS codes when they are added to the species list
• Users can always submit data with an AphiaID: this doesn't restrict them to species on the ESAS species list

How changes are implemented

1. @nicolasvanermen submits an issue to https://github.com/ices-eg/DIG/issues with a request for change
2. Issue will be reviewed by RMG
3. Change will be implemented in the ICES species list (becoming available for use to users)

Periodically:

1. On the local GitHub repo, run a script to query the ICES species list API that updates species.tsv
2. Review the diff
3. Commit

The species.tsv will thus no longer be manually maintained.

[nicolasvanermen]

The issue was posted at: ices-eg/DIG#558