A select group of TDWGians (highlighted on the Members worksheet on the link below) have invested time to produce what I am calling a core suite of standard tests and associated assertions that can be applied to occurrence records. These tests are to help identify potential occurrence record issues.

Why are we doing this? Largely to try to better align Data Publishers/Data Aggregators/Biodiversity Research Infrastructures/Data Custodians, and hopefully anyone who generates occurrence data. Users would appreciate consistency. A practical example: Merging records from say GBIF and the ALA etc would be greatly facilitated if they both applied the same set of tests. 

As a start and to keep it simple, these tests are based on one or more Darwin Core terms. We realize that tests could be applied to all Darwin Core terms, but we wanted a core set that would cover the significant terms that could be implemented relatively easily by all.

The spreadsheet can be found at https://tinyurl.com/h49zwof. Note that this spreadsheet contains a series of worksheets. Please start by reviewing the Principles as they provide a context for what has been learnt during the process.

The main worksheet is "Tests-current". We have to start somewhere, and this is the start.