Abstract Comparative analyses have a long history of macro-ecological and -evolutionary approaches to understand structure, function, mechanism, and constraint. As the pace of science accelerates, there is ever-increasing access to diverse types of data and open-access databases that are enabling and inspiring new research. Whether conducting a species-level trait-based analysis or a formal meta-analysis of study effect sizes, comparative approaches share a common reliance on reliable, carefully-curated databases. Unlike many scientific endeavors, building a database is a process that many researchers undertake infrequently and in which we are not formally trained.