Recording Uncertainty

Status

!! UNREVIEWED DRAFT TEXT !! Do not cite or reference until marked as reviewed.

Comments

It is common that if data are not available for a term the term is not used. However, we may wish to indicate that the information is known to be incomplete or known to be unknowable. For example, the sex of a fossil specimen may be impossible to assess from preserved remains. Omitting the term provides less information than including the term with a value of 'unknown' or 'N/A' or 'indeterminate'.

See the related question on the Darwin Core QA thread.
https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/issues/36