write-research-note

name	write-research-note
description	Write or update brief source-faithful research notes in the taxonomy repository. Use when asked to write a research note in docs/research-notes/ about taxonomic, nomenclatural, bibliographic, specimen-provenance, locality, or literature questions that required deeper investigation.

Write Research Note

Overview

Create short notes that preserve the evidence behind resolved or partly resolved research questions. Keep the prose factual, compact, and traceable to sources.

Workflow

1. Identify the question and scope.

   • Use the note title as the research question when possible.
   • Separate published evidence, specimen records, catalogue metadata, and inference.
   • If the user asks only for research or discussion, do not edit files.

2. Gather evidence database-first.

   • Prefer the taxonomy database and local literature paths for published sources.
   • Use Article links in the form [Author (year)](/a/<id>).
   • Use external links for museum catalogues, ledger images, GBIF records, or other primary online records.
   • Record exact specimen numbers, repositories, dates, localities, collectors, and relevant identification history.

3. Draft or update the note.

   • Put notes under docs/research-notes/<slug>.md.

   • Use this header format exactly:

     # Does _Example_ occur somewhere?
     
     _Jelle S. Zijlstra, Month YYYY_
     

   • Start with a concise statement of the question and the main evidence.

   • Use short sections for each evidence set, such as type material, later museum records, unpublished records, and assessment.

   • Prefer careful factual wording over advocacy. Say "catalogued as", "reported by", "identified as", or "probably" only when that is what the evidence supports.

   • Keep editorial judgement in an Assessment section and distinguish it from the source summaries.

4. Maintain indexes and tests.

   • Add every new note to docs/research-notes.md.
   • Keep docs/research-notes.md linked from docs/home.md.
   • The repository test taxonomy/test_docs.py checks the note index and byline format; update the note rather than weakening the test.

5. Verify.

   • Run the focused docs tests after editing:

     python -m pytest -q taxonomy/test_docs.py
     

Citation Style

• Use existing docs style: [Author (year)](/a/<article-id>) for database articles. Make sure every reference to a source in the database has such a link.
• Use plain Markdown links for external records.
• Add a ## Sources section only when it is useful to discuss the sources used. It does not need to list all sources cited inline and linked to database articles, but the section can discuss sources that are especially significant to the note, or that are not readily available in the database.