The species epithet honours Ukrainian lichenologist Alfred M. Oxner (1898–1973), who, according to the authors, "made important contributions to our current knowledge of Eastern and Northern Asian lichens".

Christian Printzen and Sonja Kistenich transferred the taxon to Biatora in 2018 following a comprehensive molecular phylogenetics-based reorganisation of the family Ramalinaceae.

[2] All of the standard chemical spot tests on the thallus are negative, while the N-test (35% solution of nitric acid) produces a violet-purple colour on the hymenium and subhymenium.

[2] Biatora pacifica, described as new to science in 2016 from Sakhalin, is similar in appearance to B. oxneri, and the authors suggest that it may be an esorediate version (i.e., lacking soredia) of this species.

[4] The precise range of Biatora oxneri is not well understood, as it is known only from a few scattered and isolated collections in Sakhalin, Khabarovsk, and Primorsky regions, all in the Russian Far East.