Dear all--

After months of effort by a dedicated few (Jamie Whitacre & I), we are near to releasing a preliminary report on current best practices for publishing phylogenetic trees (1), and a survey designed to complete the report and assess user needs (2). The draft report is a product of the TDWG phylogenetic standards interest group, while the survey is from the MIAPA list participants.

Its a great time to be doing this. Ready or not, in the next few years, the phylogenetics community is going to be forced (by journal policies) to archive tens of thousands of trees. Ideally, we can use this opportunity to catch a wave of interest in archiving, synthesis, and integration, and leverage the power of this wave to gain funding and to energize a community effort.

But, to be successful, this is going to require more of a team effort.

I'm excited about this project, but before I will commit to going ahead with it, I need commitments from 6 people, each one willing to dedicate 15 hours (over the next 6 weeks) to disseminate the survey, analyze results, and follow up on feedback and queries. These 6 people will be authors on the final published report on best practices for publishing a phylogenetic tree, and will have any other advantages that accrue from being part of this effort.

Let me know if you want to be one of those people. Regards,

Arlin

(1) http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/Phylogenetics/LinkingTrees2010 (2) https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&pli=1&formkey=dHhZa0x... #gid=0

------- Arlin Stoltzfus (arlin@umd.edu) Fellow, IBBR; Adj. Assoc. Prof., UMCP; Research Biologist, NIST IBBR, 9600 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, MD tel: 240 314 6208; web: www.molevol.org