Wikipedia:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles/Global Names Index

The Global Names Index (GNI) is a massive collection of scientific names (17,275,622 names total as of 20 March 2016). Names given are for both the genus and all of its subsequent species and sub species. Higher levels are also included. This list will provide an index of all such names to be added to Wikipedia (either creating an article or redirecting to a synonym). Subspecies will not be included (see priorities below). Names have been obtained from a number of different but credible sources. Furthermore, each name will have references to external websites which would usually contain references to scientific publications which are acceptable for sourcing many scientific names.

Step by step instructions: Creating an article

 * 1) Pick a letter (e.g. A)
 * 2) Pick a name from that list. E.g. Aaaba
 * 3) Go to  and then to.
 * 4) Go to three letter code from where Aaaba is located (e.g. )
 * 5) Search on Wikipedia to make sure it is not already created under a synonym
 * 6) Assuming it is not, create the article based on WP:TOL by adding a  according to the instructions given
 * 7) Add multiple references (which should be provided from that name on the bottom right hand corner). Example: When clicking on Aaaba in the GNI listing the following websites were provided to use as a reference: GBIF     2 records,     uBio NameBank     1 record and CU*STAR     1 record
 * 8) If you are able to access the scientific journals/subscription pages that provide further information about the animal/species feel free to add additional info on the page
 * 9) If the name is a genus, add all the species and a reference to them under a species sub heading
 * 10) Once complete add an edit summary as suggested: Created as part of the  WikiProject  Missing articles.
 * 11) Redirect any synonym of that name to the article created
 * 12) Add article to a specific WikiProject. Aaaba in this case was added to WikiProject Insects
 * 13) That's it for the article!

Step by step instructions: Creating a redirect

 * 1) As above, follow steps 1-5
 * 2) If article is not yet created and it is the more common name than the name you found, consider creating the article first
 * 3) Once article is created, redirect synonym to it (e.g.Aabacharis)
 * 4) Ensure that synonym is added either in the taxobox or somewhere within the article
 * 5) In addition to the external references that the GNI provides which would assist in finding out synonyms for species, occasionally the synonyms are listed in the group itself (e.g. ).

Step by step instructions: Updating an article

 * In many cases, there very well might be an article on the current genus/species. If that be the case, feel free to add all the references/species names to the article if they have not already been added. In some cases, this would be a valuable addition if the page on Wikipedia is only one sentence and has only one reference (e.g. )

Priority
The list happens to include a multitude of varying taxonomic rankings. The order of priority (i.e. what to work on first) should be assigned as: Due to the enormity of the list, only two and one word names were kept (hence eliminating all subspecies and subgenus on this list). But due to the vast amount of genus/species articles still missing from Wikipedia (and higher rankings), that is not a prime concern at this point in time. If all of the above is complete, then work may begin on dealing with the subgenera/subspecies.
 * 1) Genus level articles and higher (family, class, order, tribes, and anything in between (infra/sub/super?) etc.
 * 2) Species level
 * 3) Subspecies and subgenera levels

Tips

 * If there happens to be no information/little info given from the references provided (e.g. Aaabat), then try and locate what family/class/order (the more specific the better) of that particular genus/species and write a comment on the Wikipedia talk page for help/info about said name. If no one responds and nothing else can be obtained from Google then make a note on the subpage within this wikiproject that no info could be found and move on. Feel free to notify members of this list on this talk page. I wrote a query over at Talk:Vesper_bat
 * If there is little information on the individual species, consider creating the genus page instead and just wikilinking all the species in the genus article for future potential creation (once information becomes more accessible, or new discoveries are made)
 * In many cases, there will be multiple names given for the one genus or one species. An example will be provided in the following table:


 * Hence from above table, it can be seen that there is one genus, two species to that genus, and multiple individuals credited/contributing to the naming/description of the genus/species or a combination of the above (the answer to all of this can be seen in the references that each name provides/leads too)
 * Work on any name you want. But do consider working in certain groups (i.e. once you create the article Aaaba above, then the Aaaba followed by the individual/year can be removed. The species can be placed at the bottom under the "Species" section if you feel it would not be possible/reasonable to include an article about them
 * Add difficult/confusing/unreasonable names at the "SFNI" section at the bottom of the sub page (section for non inclusion).
 * In addition to the references provided by the name from the listings on the GNI, also consider doing a Google search on a species/genus if you are struggling to obtain references
 * Here is an example of the removal process when you create/redirect/update an article:
 * If anyone else has any other ideas to place here please feel free to do so
 * Please direct all questions to the talk page

Taxonomy

 * While in some cases, there is a lot of info on a particular species (obvious e.g. Homo sapiens), that is not always the case for others.  Hence in the absence of creating countless species articles, a genus  page can instead be created which would lead to more info being provided  (in general) and more content in the one page. In these cases, it is  best to list all the species from that genus on the one page. A wiki  link may be given for the species in question but there is no need to  make a redirect of the species to the genus page in case info is found  about the species and this allows the greatest chance that someone will  write the article
 * I have not yet seen higher level ordering of names on this database but if that is the case, regulations/suggestions will be made to those particular sets as required

Creating articles automatically/with the help of a BOT

 * As long as the automatic creation of articles/redirects/expansion ensures articles are more than one line and contain all the references provided by the source then that should not be a hindrance to utilizing means to make things quicker. Also as long as the individuals are aware that not every item on the list needs to be created when going through the list (as in the above example, only Aaaba needed to be created, while the next 6 names could be skipped/placed in the "species/SFNI" section as described.
 * Also, if you do use a bot to make these articles, feel free to share it on the talk page so others can also utilize it.

The Global Names Index

 * Due to there being an incredibly large number of names, the number of items for each letter can be quite long and have hence been split into multiple pages. NOTE: Only access the first list (A) for the time being as all other lists will be getting updated to include only the relevant genus/species only.

Sources from GNI and elsewhere
The following list contains additional sources to help with the creation of the listed species:
 * Bulbophyllum checklist
 * Compagno for sharks
 * Biodiversity online Natural History Museum scratchpad
 * Yeasts (paywalled)
 * GNI original data source

Participants

 * Calaka (talk) 11:08, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Rich Farmbrough, 22:44, 17 February 2016 (UTC).


 * Anyone is free to join/contribute to this list. If you feel like you will be making contributions to this page then sign your name here.