Destructive Analysis – Policy Statement and Contract

Fill out this form for requests for destructive analysis: FLAS Destructive Analysis contract.

GENERAL GUIDELINES:

The University of Florida Herbarium (FLAS) maintains its collections for the public good, with the aim of preserving specimens in perpetuity. The judicious dissection of specimens is normally permitted (all dissected material returned to fragment packet). Destructive sampling requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis (e.g., permanent removal of material for DNA, anatomical studies, chemistry, etc.). This destructive analysis policy follows standards as specified in Davis et al. (2024).

• Material may be removed from specimens only with prior approval from the curator or collections manager at the University of Florida Herbarium (FLAS), including a signed destructive analysis contract. The project must be for scientific research and have a specific, well-defined scope with proven methodologies.
• The University of Florida Herbarium (FLAS) and each specimen must be fully acknowledged and cited in any publication. Specimen citations should include our accepted herbarium acronym: “FLAS”. Please provide us with a copy of any publication.
• DNA sequence data derived from these specimens must be deposited in NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/), along with the voucher information (collector, collector number, institution (FLAS), and the barcode/accession number). Provide FLAS with NCBI accession numbers as annotations. Please consider providing FLAS with copies of any microscopy photographs using the material.
• Commercial use of materials, data, and by-products obtained from destructive analysis is not allowed. Material may not be transferred to third-parties without express permission. Material obtained from CITES and U.S. Fish and Wildlife listed taxa, including endangered species and noxious weeds, may not be transported without obtaining necessary legal permits. Material is provided without express or implied warranty, including the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose.
• No more than 1 sq. cm of material per specimen will be removed. Vegetative material in fragment packets and from obscured portions of the specimen are often ideal. Do not remove poorly represented parts. Take great care not to damage the specimen when removing material. Material may not be removed from a herbarium sheet for a second time if the nature of the study is the same. Material may not be removed from type collections, historic, or rare material, except in rare instances.
• For large projects (e.g. >10–20 specimens) requiring significant collaborative efforts, researchers should invite herbarium personnel as co-authors on resulting publications/reports.
• Each sheet must be annotated to indicate the material removed, the name of the researcher and their institutional affiliation, title of the project, and the date of removal. Visiting researchers are expected to arrive with prepared annotation slips. Email requests should send an editable document with the annotations.
• Failure to adhere to this policy contract may result in the refusal of sampling requests