Quality Assurance (QA)

The process of certification is a data validation and quality assurance (QA) procedure for species checklists performed in cooperation with park, state and other authorities that are most familiar with a particular taxonomic category.  The information that results from the certification process is based upon the premise that the information is current, complete and accurate to the best knowledge of the reviewers at the time of the review.  Because NPSpecies is a dynamic database which will continue to be populated into the future, it is necessary to document when, and which data have been reviewed for completeness and accuracy so that users can qualify the use of the data for scientific, management and interpretive purposes. 

In order to maintain information in such a dynamic system, data need to be entered and reviewed on an intermittent or periodic basis.  At minimum, a certification will be completed after the first formal review of a species checklist for a park and taxonomic category.  The need for subsequent reviews and certification will vary from a few to many years depending on changes to park boundaries, man-made or natural events affecting biodiversity, and the extent of data added or edited after the time of the previous review. 

Upon completion of the QA process, the participants will fill out a form documenting what was reviewed, when the review took place and who participated.  The information on the form will be included in the on-line version of NPSpecies as a permanent part of the database.  Once completed, users and managers of information in NPSpecies will know at any time the history of reviews and can gauge the appropriate use of the information. 

The certification process targets the checklist fields prior to upload into the NPSpecies master on-line database.  The checklist components include values for Park Status, Abundance, Residency and Nativity.  Additionally, each plant and animal record is ideally supported by one of three evidence categories: specimen vouchers stored at various NPS and non-NPS repositories; verified observations from both NPS and non-NPS sources; and natural resource references which are cataloged in the NPS natural resource bibliography application, NatureBib.  All of these evidence categories serve to verify and validate the existence of plants and animals in individual park units.