Referential Integrity

Data tables by definition, have a taxon number attribute. Any taxon number in any data table must refer to an entry in the Taxa table. Similarly any non-zero value in a bibliographic number field for a data table must exist in the bibliographic dictionary. Finally any place number in a geographic distribution table must also occur in the geography dictionary.

Certain fields must not be null. The description for each entity describes the fields where nulls are allowed.

Duplicate records within a table are not allowed.

The rules governing the values of the ACACIA attributes have intentionally been kept to a minimum. It is up to the author of an ACACIA data set to ensure that the data set conforms to the above rules, as well as for the quality and accuracy of the data set.