title: A new R package, exsic, to assist taxonomists in creating indices.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Taxonomists manage large amounts of specimen data. This is usually initiated in spreadsheets and then converted for publication into locality lists and indices to associate collectors and collector numbers from herbarium sheets to identifications (exsiccatae). This conversion process is mostly done by hand and is time-consuming, cumbersome, and error-prone. •
  
  
  RESULTS
  We constructed a tool, 'exsic,' based on the statistical software R. The exsic function is part of the R package 'exsic' and produces specimen citations and exsiccatae conforming to four related formats. •
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The tool increases speed, efficiency, and accuracy to convert raw spreadsheet tables to publication-ready content.
authors.affiliation: Integrated IT and Computational Research Unit, International Potato Center, Avenida La Molina 1895, La Molina, Lima, Peru.
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.affiliation: USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Vegetable Crops Research Unit, University of Wisconsin, 1575 Linden Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1590 USA.
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Spooner
keywords: R; exsic; exsiccatae; reproducible research; software