The World Register of Marine Species was born in 2007. Today – 17 years later -, it is the number one authoritative classification and catalogue of marine names.

You might remember that we started celebrating the 15th anniversary of the World Register of Marine Species in November 2022, with a series of 15 news messages related to several aspects of WoRMS. In that same month, we also launched the first-ever WoRMS t-shirt. And our first WoRMS gadgets – our magnetic pins – followed shortly after that. The Summer of 2022 was also the first time we have actively sought input of our many editors through a questionnaire, aiming to get a better understanding of how they embed their voluntary contributions to WoRMS into their daily lives.

Today, almost two years later, the Data Management Team (DMT) is happy to (finally) announce the publication of this paper on WoRMS from the DMT perspective, in celebration of WoRMS’ crystal or 15th anniversary. The paper provides an update on the basic statistics of marine species discovery rates, as well as insights in the day-to-day activities and dynamics of the WoRMS editorial board. We also present progress made on the content priorities as defined by the WoRMS Steering Committee, and the plans towards completion in the framework of the UN Ocean Decade.

This paper is intended to keep an official record of the evolution of WoRMS – both in front of and behind the scenes, and was driven by the Data Management Team, in collaboration with the (past) chairs and co-chairs of the WoRMS Steering Committee. It can be seen as a follow-up of the 10th WoRMS anniversary paper published in 2018, highlighting general insights and experiences from the DMT. A five-year cycle seems to provide a good opportunity to officially record progress on a hugely dynamic system, so who knows how we will celebrate our 20th anniversary in 2027…?

The choice of words in the title of the paper “through the looking glass” is not a coincidence, but as some of you might have guessed, a nod towards Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Each dive into WoRMS, either from the Data Management Team, Editorial Board or user perspective, can bring you to previously unfamiliar terrain, and leave you in awe and wonder of what WoRMS can potentially offer to our knowledge and insights on marine science in the broadest sense.



Image by Freepik

The work of the WoRMS Data Management Team is supported by LifeWatch Belgium, part of the E-Science European LifeWatch Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research. In addition, LifeWatch gives support to taxonomic experts by providing them logistic and financial support for the organization of meetings and workshops related to expanding the content and enhancing the quality of taxonomic databases. WoRMS is an endorsed project action under the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (UN Ocean Decade).