Project 950: 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/P950, http://dx.doi.org/10.7934/P950
This project contains | Matrices |
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Download Project SDD File | Total scored cells: 108 Total media associated with cells: 120 Total labels associated with cell media: 16 |
Characters | |
Total characters: 9 Total characters with associated media: 9 Total characters with media with labels: 0 Total character states: 19 Total character states with associated media: 19 Total character states with media with labels:1 Total unordered/ordered characters:9/0 |
Currently Viewing:
MorphoBank Project 950
MorphoBank Project 950
- Creation Date:
11 May 2013 - Publication Date:
30 May 2017 - Project views: 120797
- Media downloads: 2
- Matrix downloads: 25
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 | ||||||
Marymegan Daly Project Administrator | 11 | 9 | 136 | 6 | 23 | 1 | 108 (102, 4, 2) | 109 | 15 | 2 | ||||
Jed Irvine Full membership | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||
Michael Lam Full membership | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
Maureen O'Leary Full membership | 13 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
Abigail Reft Full membership | 5 | 20 | 189 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 11 | 0 | 0 |
Taxonomic Overview for Matrix 'M2125' (12 Taxa)
taxon | unscored cells |
scored cells |
no cell support |
NPA cells |
"-" cells | cell images | labels on cell images |
member access |
[1] Asterias asteriformis Last Modified in 07/11/14 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 5 |
[2] Anemonia sulcata acanthoneme Last Modified in 06/13/14 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 5 |
[3] Aiptasia sp. Last Modified in 07/10/14 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 2 | 5 |
[4] Cereus pedunculatus Last Modified in 07/11/14 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 5 |
[5] Diadumene leucolena Last Modified in 07/11/14 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 5 |
[6] Haliplanella lineata pb2d Last Modified in 06/11/14 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 5 |
[7] Urticina felina Last Modified in 07/11/14 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 5 |
[8] Metridium senile pb1 Last Modified in 06/13/14 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 5 |
[9] Palythoa sp Last Modified in 07/10/14 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 5 |
[10] Rhodactis sp. Last Modified in 07/11/14 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 5 |
[11] Stomphia sp. Last Modified in 07/10/14 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 5 |
[12] Actinostola sp. Last Modified in 07/11/14 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 5 |
Project views
type | number of views | Individual items viewed (where applicable) |
Total project views | 120797 | |
Project overview | 2611 | |
Media views | 83522 | Media search (3934 views); M286400 (539 views); M286426 (494 views); M286404 (506 views); M286437 (422 views); M286457 (461 views); M286385 (515 views); M286439 (421 views); M286417 (488 views); M286393 (492 views); M286427 (427 views); M286444 (423 views); M286389 (521 views); M286473 (435 views); M286401 (538 views); M286448 (439 views); M286425 (473 views); M286395 (529 views); M286432 (453 views); M286469 (418 views); M286454 (440 views); M286410 (541 views); M286409 (504 views); M286429 (420 views); M286438 (432 views); M286411 (493 views); M286408 (543 views); M286452 (411 views); M286386 (518 views); M286466 (455 views); M286461 (448 views); M286380 (497 views); M286424 (432 views); M286388 (554 views); M286446 (433 views); M286447 (428 views); M286453 (419 views); M286450 (505 views); M286433 (452 views); M286478 (421 views); M286384 (520 views); M286451 (451 views); M286470 (437 views); M286459 (489 views); M286467 (436 views); M286394 (559 views); M286455 (441 views); M286406 (516 views); M286413 (553 views); M286407 (533 views); M286434 (447 views); M286392 (530 views); M286435 (447 views); M286445 (424 views); M286382 (524 views); M286415 (505 views); M286398 (500 views); M286421 (457 views); M286399 (500 views); M286416 (509 views); M286468 (444 views); M286390 (535 views); M286418 (537 views); M286397 (509 views); M286476 (409 views); M286477 (408 views); M286458 (440 views); M286412 (489 views); M286460 (414 views); M286441 (418 views); M286414 (501 views); M286403 (501 views); M286474 (435 views); M286471 (430 views); M286465 (441 views); M286428 (450 views); M286379 (781 views); M286431 (442 views); M286430 (433 views); M286472 (425 views); M286456 (437 views); M286391 (530 views); M286405 (523 views); M286463 (471 views); M286396 (520 views); M286422 (515 views); M286387 (503 views); M286420 (455 views); M286423 (459 views); M286381 (511 views); M286475 (443 views); M286402 (531 views); M286443 (422 views); M286383 (522 views); M286491 (253 views); M286563 (270 views); M286543 (263 views); M307855 (284 views); M286515 (252 views); M286449 (447 views); M286517 (247 views); M286419 (485 views); M286504 (246 views); M286542 (246 views); M286510 (269 views); M286555 (266 views); M286496 (247 views); M307854 (247 views); M307866 (223 views); M307873 (221 views); M286557 (256 views); M286485 (235 views); M286512 (254 views); M286464 (425 views); M286462 (436 views); M286436 (426 views); M286442 (456 views); M286440 (463 views); M307875 (262 views); M307816 (260 views); M307861 (247 views); M286495 (256 views); M286553 (241 views); M286558 (248 views); M286539 (285 views); M286509 (250 views); M286556 (252 views); M307858 (252 views); M307862 (253 views); M307868 (216 views); M286490 (260 views); M307871 (228 views); M286544 (265 views); M286494 (259 views); M286588 (253 views); M286540 (263 views); M286551 (240 views); M286519 (247 views); M286549 (266 views); M286493 (242 views); M286565 (263 views); M286566 (258 views); M286537 (253 views); M307867 (244 views); M286562 (253 views); M286507 (265 views); M307813 (268 views); M307817 (262 views); M307851 (262 views); M286568 (248 views); M286506 (260 views); M286529 (265 views); M286554 (245 views); M286513 (259 views); M286559 (280 views); M286502 (241 views); M286505 (269 views); M307774 (367 views); M286518 (270 views); M286486 (283 views); M286533 (260 views); M286514 (272 views); M286520 (277 views); M307857 (255 views); M286564 (270 views); M286541 (254 views); M286536 (264 views); M286488 (240 views); M286516 (325 views); M307864 (268 views); M286560 (258 views); M286482 (262 views); M286497 (244 views); M286522 (237 views); M286548 (253 views); M286527 (259 views); M286528 (269 views); M286550 (241 views); M307870 (244 views); M307874 (231 views); M307865 (249 views); M307859 (230 views); M286498 (244 views); M286567 (260 views); M286561 (310 views); M286508 (250 views); M286530 (256 views); M287171 (315 views); M286538 (258 views); M286501 (254 views); M286489 (277 views); M286500 (245 views); M307860 (255 views); M286547 (256 views); M286481 (245 views); M286503 (250 views); M286524 (256 views); M307815 (261 views); M286499 (274 views); M307869 (233 views); M286535 (262 views); M307863 (262 views); M286531 (250 views); M286479 (254 views); M307818 (260 views); M286492 (264 views); M286484 (237 views); M307872 (223 views); M286483 (231 views); M286525 (252 views); M307853 (253 views); M286552 (274 views); M307856 (246 views); M307852 (253 views); M287172 (254 views); M286480 (244 views); M286523 (268 views); M286587 (241 views); M286534 (249 views); M286532 (248 views); M286487 (268 views); M286521 (249 views); M286526 (239 views); M286511 (248 views); M286546 (256 views); M286545 (255 views); M333754 (1 view); M333761 (1 view); M324019 (1 view); M333769 (1 view); M333736 (1 view); M324015 (1 view); M333744 (1 view); M333779 (1 view); |
Matrix views | 1485 | Matrix landing page (1194 views); Nematocyst matrix (291 views); |
Documents list | 1152 | |
Bibliography | 890 | |
Views for media list | 4249 | |
Taxon list | 8737 | |
Specimen list | 18151 |
Project downloads
type | number of downloads | Individual items downloaded (where applicable) |
Total downloads from project | 215 | |
Project downloads | 187 | |
Matrix downloads | 25 | Nematocyst matrix (25 downloads); |
Document downloads | 1 | Supplementary Material (1 download); |
Media downloads | 2 | M286379 (1 download); M287172 (1 download); |