# Correcting wrong synonymy on GBIF

**URL:** <https://discourse.gbif.org/t/correcting-wrong-synonymy-on-gbif/5990>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous\
**Created:** [June 2, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://discourse.gbif.org/t/correcting-wrong-synonymy-on-gbif/5990 "2025-06-02T17:38:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mykola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Mykola](https://discourse.gbif.org/u/Mykola)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://discourse.gbif.org/t/correcting-wrong-synonymy-on-gbif/5990/1 "2025-06-02T17:38:28Z")

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Dear GBIF, dear colleagues

I’d like to request help from the community concerning the taxonomic corrections.  
Could someone please tell me: what actions and steps should the scientist commence to apply for a change in the synonymy, presented in GBIF but incorrect in biological reality? As I understand, local taxonomy is derived from Catalogue of Life, and I should somehow address them for any changes to occur. Maybe, someone have faced such problem before and can advise what exactly to do?

My particular question concerns the cancellation of the synonymy between one parental species and hybridogenetic hybrid in water frogs. Hybrid form differs significantly, has its own distribution pattern (pretty different from parental), and demonstrate the set of other unique features - so that equalizing their names seems rather wrong in many aspects.

I would be quite grateful for experience sharing, directions and advice.

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**Author:** ![markus](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/gbif1/user_avatar/discourse.gbif.org/markus/32/411_2.png) [@markus](https://discourse.gbif.org/u/markus)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 8:20am UTC](https://discourse.gbif.org/t/correcting-wrong-synonymy-on-gbif/5990/2 "2025-06-03T08:20:09Z")

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The best place to start would be a github issue for COL explaining the problem and if possible linking to publications or some other proof:

> **[Build software better, together](https://github.com/CatalogueOfLife/data/issues/new?template=col-content-feedback.md)**
>
> GitHub is where people build software. More than 150 million people use GitHub to discover, fork, and contribute to over 420 million projects.

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**Author:** ![markus](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/gbif1/user_avatar/discourse.gbif.org/markus/32/411_2.png) [@markus](https://discourse.gbif.org/u/markus)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 8:22am UTC](https://discourse.gbif.org/t/correcting-wrong-synonymy-on-gbif/5990/3 "2025-06-03T08:22:37Z")

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If you do not have or want a github account you can also provide feedback directly on every taxon pages of the COL site at the bottom right, e.g. [Rana italica Dubois, 1987 | COL](https://www.catalogueoflife.org/data/taxon/6X364)

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/gbif1/original/1X/d2525d53d815eb0c992cc44730ed8a6a1be1dbb5.png) [@system](https://discourse.gbif.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 6:23pm UTC](https://discourse.gbif.org/t/correcting-wrong-synonymy-on-gbif/5990/4 "2025-07-03T18:23:20Z")

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