Born Twice: Specimen and Record at the Moment of Collection

Most specimen records are rebuilt after the fact. Someone squints at a label months or years later and types in the collector, place, and date again. Every retyping is a chance to get it wrong. This paper describes the Independent File (IF): one HTML file that starts the record in the field, at the moment the plant is collected. A QR label and identifier exist before the specimen goes in the press. Photographs, GPS, and Darwin Core fields are tied to it on the spot. The file runs in any modern browser with no install, no account, and no network. It prints labels and exports to the formats herbaria already use. The paper also includes audits of how often herbarium and GenBank records keep the provenance a voucher should carry. The answer is: less often than you'd hope. The HTML version is the real paper. It has a working voucher, interactive diagrams, and appendices that do something - see Appendix F.