The NBN is committed to making high quality, dependable biological data available in order to educate and inform about the state of the UK’s
wildlife.
It is unavoidable that species records may contain inaccuracies. In order to continue to improve the quality of data on the NBN Atlas, we have
added an option where users can ‘flag an issue’ if they see a possible problem with a record.
Users can use the ‘flag an issue’ function to report this problem or suggest a correction. The guidance notes for ‘flag an issue’ can be found
here.
Once an issue has been flagged, the Atlas administrators will be notified, who will contact the data provider.
There are then three outcomes:
1. The data provider confirms that all the information on the record is correct;
2. The data provider confirms the mistake in the record and the NBN Atlas administrators can remove the record; and
3. The data provider confirms the mistake in the record and resupplies the dataset with the updated record.
It is possible for data providers to receive an email alert when annotations are made to records in particular datasets or on any record in the
Atlas.
Ultimately, dataset editors will be notified automatically when annotations are made to their records and they will be able to verify the
annotations.
How to flag an issue
Users must be logged in to the Atlas before the ‘flag an issue’ function can be used.
If there is a potential problem with a record, users can click the ‘flag an issue’ box on the left
of the occurrence record page.
A drop-down box will enable the user to specify the issue-type (for instance, geospatial, taxon misidentified) and there is also a box to add any comments.
Once the issue has been submitted, the Atlas administrators will be notified. The record
provider will then be contacted in order to rectify any potential problems.
The user that flagged the issue will be kept informed of the outcome.