An open-source R package designed for herbarium records processed 728 collections through its full workflow in 25 minutes in the authors' reported test. Label generation took 15 minutes, and local processing took roughly four minutes, with the package producing taxonomic and spatial outputs for review.
From field records to labels
BarnebyLives was developed to help collectors supplement their collection notes, verify taxonomic data, run quality checks, generate labels and submit digital records. Its five modules cover spatial checks, taxonomic checks, formatting, manual review and data exporting. Here, taxonomy means the naming and classification of plants.
The package was iteratively developed from submissions by approximately 20 seasonal field botany teams over two years. The testing dataset contained 980 records from 234 Western North American sites and represented 728 species, 83 infraspecies, meaning named subdivisions within species, and 74 families. For the timing report, the article says 728 collections went through all processing steps. It does not explicitly reconcile that collection count with the 980-record testing total.
To check the records, the software combines U.S. government geospatial data with in-house spell checkers and name standards from IPNI and Kew's Plants of the World Online. It can optionally generate Google Maps directions. Before labels and shipping manifests are produced, it exports tabular and spatial data for review.
What the checks found
At the family level, none of the 74 names were misspelled, but the package made 25 nomenclature suggestions, or proposed changes in scientific naming. It identified six family or taxonomic-entity entries as unequivocally incorrect, five records with family information filled automatically, one outdated circumscription, six records reflecting alternative taxonomy and seven erroneous flags.
The genus check covered 326 genera and found 74 discrepancies. The reported breakdown included 42 outdated-name instances spanning 21 unique genera, four alternative-taxonomy records spanning two genera and two erroneous flags.
At species level, the package flagged 62 records among 728 distinct species and detected 33 misspelled specific epithets in 33 unique species. A specific epithet is the species-level part of a scientific name. The report also lists 15 outdated-name instances in 15 species, two alternative-taxonomy records in two species, eight erroneous flags and one final record in which the genus and epithet appeared in the wrong order. Those results are not a formal accuracy score because no independent reference standard or estimate was reported.
Coordinate checks flagged five longitude autofill issues and three records in which latitude was automatically increased. All reported flags were correct, according to the article. The report did not provide independent validation or measures showing how often the checks catch real problems or produce false alarms.
Where the evidence stops
The article's conclusion presents BarnebyLives as improving data accuracy, keeping taxonomy current and reducing accessioning time and effort in the United States. Those are claims from descriptive software testing, not a controlled comparison. No comparison group or control condition was reported, so the timings and flags do not establish that the package is faster or more accurate than another tool or a manual workflow.
The package also has a geographic boundary to keep in view. It permits custom geographic domains, but many environmental and geographic variables are tailored to Western North America and may be less useful, unavailable or inapplicable elsewhere.
Available for reuse
The open-source package and its development version are reported as available through GitHub, along with seven use-case tutorials through GitHub Pages. Supporting information includes system details for benchmarking and label templates. The Bureau of Land Management provided funding to R.C.B. for most of his specimen collection activities.
Paper data and sources
Original title: BarnebyLives: An R package to create herbarium specimen labels and clean spreadsheets.
Authors: Reed Clark Benkendorf, Jeremie B Fant
Journal/Repository: Applications in plant sciences
Status: Peer-reviewed
First online: 2026-08-20
DOI: 10.1002/aps3.70077
Original paper