iNaturalist is an open science resource for ecological genomics by enabling rapid and tractable records of initial observations of sequenced biological samples

Abstract

The rapidly growing body of publicly available sequencing data for rare species and/or wild-caught samples is accelerating the need for detailed records of the samples used to generate datasets. Many already published datasets are unlikely to ever be reused, not due to problems with the data themselves, but due to their questionable or unverifiable origins. In this paper, I present iNaturalist-a pre-existing citizen science platform that allows people to post photo observations of organisms in nature-as a tool that allows genomics researchers to rapidly publish observations of samples used to generate sequencing datasets. This practice aligns with the values of the open science movement, and I also discuss how iNaturalist, along with other online resources, can be used to create an open genomics pipeline that enables future replication studies and ensures the value of genomics datasets to future research.