Archiving Standards for the Census of Marine Life Edited by Gary Rosenberg; last updated 7 April 2005

The Census of Marine Life (CoML) is a global network of researchers in more than 45 nations engaged in a ten-year initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in the oceans -- past, present, and future. Sampling programs are being conducting in many biologically interesting and inaccessible environments. To maximize the usefulness of these samples to society, it is important that they be archived in publicly accessible collections at museums and other research institutions.

Archived samples serve a number of purposes

• ensuring reproducibility of results and ability to test hypotheses,
• providing baseline data for studying change over time,
• allowing study by new and different methods, and
• providing materials for education and exhibition about CoML and its scientific results.

To ensure that specimens are collected, preserved, and archived in optimal ways, the Sloan Foundation sponsored two workshops on Archiving Standards for the Census of Marine Life. These workshops led to the standards and recommendations on this website, which cover the following topics:

• information on methods for collecting and preserving various organisms for those who are not specialists;
• taxonomists who are willing to collaborate with CoML projects in research that requires authoritative identifications of species;
• guidelines for depositing CoML materials in appropriate institutions;
• an ongoing working group charged with keeping archiving standards up-to-date.