Project 2490: M. A. O’Leary, K. Alphonse, A. H. Mariangeles, D. Cavaliere, A. Cirranello, T. G. Dietterich, M. Julius, S. Kaufman, E. Law, M. Passarotti, A. Reft, J. Robalino, N. B. Simmons, S. Y. Smith, D. W. Stevenson, E. Theriot, P. M. Velazco, R. L. Walls, M. Yu, M. Daly. 2018. Crowds Replicate Performance of Scientific Experts Scoring Phylogenetic Matrices of Phenotypes. Systematic Biology. 67 (1):49-60.
Abstract
Scientists building the Tree of Life face an overwhelming challenge to categorize phenotypes (e.g., anatomy, physiology) from millions of living and fossil species. This biodiversity challenge far outstrips the capacities of trained scientific experts. Here we explore whether crowdsourcing can be used to collect matrix data on a large scale with the participation of the non-expert students, or “citizen scientists.” Crowdsourcing, or data collection by non-experts, frequently via the internet, has enabled scientists to tackle some large-scale data collection challenges too massive for individuals or scientific teams alone. The quality of work by non-expert crowds is, however, often questioned and little data has been collected on how such crowds perform on complex tasks such as phylogenetic character coding. We studied a crowd of over 600 non-experts, and found that they could use images to identify anatomical similarity (hypotheses of homology) with an average accuracy of 82% compared to scores provided by experts in the field. This performance pattern held across the Tree of Life, from protists to vertebrates. We introduce a procedure that predicts the difficulty of each character and that can be used to assign harder characters to experts and easier characters to a non-expert crowd for scoring. We test this procedure in a controlled experiment comparing crowd scores to those of experts and show that crowds can produce matrices with over 90% of cells scored correctly while reducing the number of cells to be scored by experts by 50%. Preparation time, including image collection and processing, for a crowdsourcing experiment is significant, and does not currently save time of scientific experts overall. However, if innovations in automation or robotics can reduce such effort, then large-scale implementation of our method could greatly increase the collective scientific knowledge of species phenotypes for phylogenetic tree building. For the field of crowdsourcing, we provide a rare study with ground truth, or an experimental control that many studies lack, and contribute new methods on how to coordinate the work of experts and non-experts. We show that there are important instances in which crowd consensus is not a good proxy for correctness.Read the article »
Article DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syx052
Project DOI: 10.7934/P2490, http://dx.doi.org/10.7934/P2490
This project contains | Matrices |
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Download Project SDD File | Total scored cells: 103 Total media associated with cells: 106 Total labels associated with cell media: 1 |
Characters | |
Total characters: 8 Total characters with associated media: 3 Total characters with media with labels: 0 Total character states: 23 Total character states with associated media: 23 Total character states with media with labels:0 Total unordered/ordered characters:8/0 |
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MorphoBank Project 2490
MorphoBank Project 2490
- Creation Date:
05 July 2016 - Publication Date:
30 May 2017 - Project views: 102039
- Matrix downloads: 11
This research
supported by
Authors' Institutions
- Ohio State University
- Oregon State University
- University of Arizona
- University of Michigan
- University of Texas at Austin
- University of Waterloo
- American Museum of Natural History
- Drexel University
- Kenx Technology Inc
- New York Botanical Garden
- St. Cloud State University
- Stony Brook University
- Whirl-i-gig
- College of William and Mary
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Members
member name | taxa | specimens | media | chars | character
| cell scorings (scored, NPA, "-") | cell
| rules | ||||||
Edward Theriot Project Administrator | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
Matthew Julius Full membership | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
Maureen O'Leary Full membership | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
Anna Mengjie Yu Full membership | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Taxonomic Overview for Matrix 'M24106' (13 Taxa)
taxon | unscored cells |
scored cells |
no cell support |
NPA cells |
"-" cells | cell images | labels on cell images |
member access |
[1] Cyclotella atomus atomus Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 4 |
[2] Cyclotella distinguenda Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 |
[3] Cyclotella atomus marina Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 |
[4] Cyclotella gamma Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 |
[5] Cyclotella choctawhatcheeana Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 4 |
[6] Cyclotella cryptica Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 4 |
[7] Cyclotella litoralis Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 |
[8] Cyclotella cf. meneghiniana (l1263) Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 |
[9] Cyclotella nana Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 |
[10] Cyclotella quillensis Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 |
[11] † Cyclotella undescribed miocene ect 765 Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 |
[12] Cyclotella striata Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 |
[13] Cyclotella stylorum Last Modified in 07/05/16 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 |
Project views
type | number of views | Individual items viewed (where applicable) |
Total project views | 102039 | |
Project overview | 2586 | |
Matrix views | 1457 | Matrix landing page (1191 views); Cyclotella qualitative characters (266 views); |
Media views | 81712 | Media search (3773 views); M424498 (728 views); M424509 (585 views); M424547 (405 views); M424572 (362 views); M424488 (518 views); M424487 (481 views); M424502 (496 views); M424485 (473 views); M424541 (401 views); M424520 (404 views); M424562 (429 views); M424504 (474 views); M424529 (401 views); M424531 (432 views); M424567 (405 views); M424538 (419 views); M424500 (549 views); M424482 (466 views); M424511 (548 views); M424551 (426 views); M424478 (484 views); M424568 (401 views); M424609 (276 views); M424664 (242 views); M424586 (299 views); M424690 (257 views); M424651 (258 views); M424695 (251 views); M424614 (242 views); M424688 (290 views); M424640 (242 views); M424663 (241 views); M424677 (249 views); M424685 (274 views); M424655 (237 views); M424595 (290 views); M424696 (245 views); M424699 (245 views); M424604 (293 views); M424556 (434 views); M424607 (273 views); M424686 (255 views); M424659 (247 views); M424577 (412 views); M424544 (428 views); M424493 (499 views); M424570 (404 views); M424512 (478 views); M424650 (242 views); M424674 (241 views); M424611 (273 views); M424675 (257 views); M424693 (258 views); M424658 (256 views); M424592 (274 views); M424616 (272 views); M424589 (291 views); M424700 (268 views); M424631 (247 views); M424601 (297 views); M424641 (242 views); M424638 (233 views); M424625 (262 views); M424612 (263 views); M424662 (250 views); M424584 (267 views); M424669 (231 views); M424596 (291 views); M424665 (239 views); M424642 (247 views); M424639 (230 views); M424678 (239 views); M424585 (298 views); M424646 (253 views); M424626 (271 views); M424666 (270 views); M424661 (247 views); M424579 (281 views); M424636 (253 views); M424652 (252 views); M424682 (252 views); M424599 (259 views); M424657 (240 views); M424582 (272 views); M424583 (300 views); M424672 (240 views); M424689 (254 views); M424597 (235 views); M424550 (387 views); M424491 (475 views); M424539 (396 views); M424533 (378 views); M424554 (429 views); M424517 (451 views); M424480 (486 views); M424522 (429 views); M424495 (488 views); M424507 (528 views); M424569 (364 views); M424676 (246 views); M424610 (293 views); M424492 (507 views); M424654 (246 views); M424540 (408 views); M424602 (268 views); M424647 (234 views); M424645 (227 views); M424573 (376 views); M424588 (279 views); M424593 (288 views); M424660 (268 views); M424598 (264 views); M424615 (287 views); M424701 (306 views); M424608 (273 views); M424667 (260 views); M424697 (260 views); M424648 (254 views); M424668 (235 views); M424549 (400 views); M424523 (482 views); M424687 (260 views); M424627 (248 views); M424624 (300 views); M424581 (241 views); M424643 (246 views); M424670 (254 views); M424629 (250 views); M424628 (268 views); M424578 (266 views); M424622 (308 views); M424594 (284 views); M424606 (284 views); M424694 (229 views); M424656 (261 views); M424632 (250 views); M424680 (245 views); M424580 (248 views); M424698 (263 views); M424692 (218 views); M424618 (280 views); M424635 (244 views); M424673 (250 views); M424634 (214 views); M424603 (262 views); M424630 (282 views); M424633 (281 views); M424613 (262 views); M424683 (253 views); M424681 (243 views); M424619 (279 views); M424620 (263 views); M424679 (269 views); M424591 (257 views); M424605 (264 views); M424617 (251 views); M424590 (274 views); M424621 (291 views); M424653 (239 views); M424684 (232 views); M424691 (231 views); M424587 (302 views); M424637 (283 views); M424600 (267 views); M424671 (255 views); M424649 (242 views); M424501 (456 views); M424483 (600 views); M424565 (417 views); M424490 (490 views); M424481 (489 views); M424536 (370 views); M424564 (407 views); M424548 (415 views); M424532 (399 views); M424489 (487 views); M424576 (370 views); M424534 (429 views); M424486 (474 views); M424546 (455 views); M424537 (414 views); M424513 (458 views); M424574 (443 views); M424496 (466 views); M424527 (415 views); M424508 (475 views); M424557 (410 views); M424530 (416 views); M424566 (475 views); M424571 (403 views); M424552 (439 views); M424525 (427 views); M424519 (513 views); M424515 (461 views); M424563 (406 views); M424516 (476 views); M424543 (430 views); M424506 (513 views); M424503 (467 views); M424514 (475 views); M424560 (425 views); M424542 (439 views); M424499 (464 views); M424575 (461 views); M424545 (442 views); M424559 (399 views); M424526 (426 views); M424555 (431 views); M424497 (497 views); M424702 (263 views); M424479 (501 views); M424558 (403 views); M424623 (268 views); M424521 (437 views); M424484 (484 views); M424553 (441 views); M424535 (429 views); M424518 (416 views); M424644 (236 views); M424494 (620 views); M424528 (404 views); M424505 (502 views); M424712 (10 views); M424561 (418 views); M424524 (459 views); M424510 (474 views); M424714 (9 views); M424723 (16 views); M424703 (12 views); M424706 (8 views); M424707 (8 views); M424731 (6 views); M424728 (6 views); M424711 (9 views); M424716 (6 views); M424715 (14 views); M424717 (12 views); M424733 (11 views); M424705 (12 views); M424727 (4 views); M424725 (6 views); M424722 (7 views); M424720 (12 views); M424736 (6 views); M424718 (7 views); M424726 (8 views); M424729 (9 views); M424704 (7 views); M424719 (6 views); M424730 (6 views); M424708 (9 views); M424709 (11 views); M424724 (7 views); M424713 (5 views); M424732 (13 views); M424735 (16 views); M424710 (10 views); M424721 (9 views); M424734 (3 views); |
Taxon list | 1648 | |
Specimen list | 9666 | |
Views for media list | 2988 | |
Bibliography | 909 | |
Documents list | 1073 |
Project downloads
type | number of downloads | Individual items downloaded (where applicable) |
Total downloads from project | 238 | |
Project downloads | 226 | |
Matrix downloads | 11 | Cyclotella qualitative characters (11 downloads); |
Document downloads | 1 | Supplementary Material (1 download); |