Project 2491: 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/P2491, http://dx.doi.org/10.7934/P2491
This project contains | Matrices |
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Download Project SDD File | Total scored cells: 117 Total media associated with cells: 104 Total labels associated with cell media: 0 |
Characters | |
Total characters: 7 Total characters with associated media: 6 Total characters with media with labels: 0 Total character states: 14 Total character states with associated media: 14 Total character states with media with labels:0 Total unordered/ordered characters:7/0 |
Currently Viewing:
MorphoBank Project 2491
MorphoBank Project 2491
- Creation Date:
06 July 2016 - Publication Date:
30 May 2017 - Project views: 124631
- Media downloads: 1
- Matrix downloads: 3
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 | ||||||
Mariangeles Arce H. Project Administrator | 20 | 72 | 448 | 7 | 20 | 0 | 117 (109, 0, 8) | 104 | 0 | 2 | ||||
Maureen O'Leary Full membership | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Taxonomic Overview for Matrix 'M24107' (20 Taxa)
taxon | unscored cells |
scored cells |
no cell support |
NPA cells |
"-" cells | cell images | labels on cell images |
member access |
[1] Ictalurus furcatus Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
[2] Ictalurus balsanus Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
[3] Ictalurus punctatus Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
[4] Ictalurus meridionalis Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
[5] Ameiurus catus Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
[6] Ameiurus serracanthus Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 2 |
[7] Ameiurus brunneus Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 2 |
[8] Ameiurus platycephalus Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
[9] Ameiurus natalis Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
[10] Ameiurus melas Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
[11] Ameiurus nebulosus Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
[12] Noturus flavus Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
[13] Noturus stigmosus Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
[14] Prietella phreatophila Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
[15] Pylodictis olivaris Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
[16] Satan eurystomus Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
[17] Cranoglanis bouderius Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
[18] † Ictalurus countermani Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
[19] † Ictalurus hazenensis Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
[20] † Hypsidoris farsonensis Last Modified in 07/06/16 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
Project views
type | number of views | Individual items viewed (where applicable) |
Total project views | 124631 | |
Project overview | 2650 | |
Matrix views | 1511 | Matrix landing page (1160 views); Ictaluridae+Cranoglanididae (351 views); |
Media views | 77387 | Media search (3921 views); M424783 (481 views); M424801 (407 views); M424739 (473 views); M424769 (505 views); M424784 (408 views); M424740 (496 views); M424805 (468 views); M424834 (387 views); M424795 (417 views); M424747 (487 views); M424746 (504 views); M424797 (422 views); M424756 (494 views); M424758 (480 views); M424824 (387 views); M424754 (528 views); M424827 (420 views); M424791 (397 views); M424793 (422 views); M424836 (351 views); M424776 (477 views); M424799 (421 views); M424738 (517 views); M424759 (507 views); M424743 (475 views); M424803 (388 views); M424786 (389 views); M424826 (363 views); M424813 (406 views); M424804 (365 views); M424772 (450 views); M424767 (481 views); M424781 (491 views); M424785 (420 views); M424760 (471 views); M424810 (421 views); M424779 (518 views); M424818 (418 views); M424755 (465 views); M424814 (413 views); M424763 (531 views); M424751 (465 views); M424764 (491 views); M424796 (424 views); M424820 (358 views); M424752 (479 views); M424778 (434 views); M424833 (379 views); M424748 (481 views); M424766 (488 views); M424816 (370 views); M424745 (535 views); M424830 (404 views); M424744 (493 views); M424780 (469 views); M424782 (460 views); M424821 (402 views); M424775 (473 views); M424822 (423 views); M424790 (390 views); M424807 (396 views); M424829 (390 views); M424811 (374 views); M424768 (484 views); M424773 (518 views); M424809 (400 views); M424741 (514 views); M424750 (494 views); M424825 (421 views); M424770 (495 views); M424832 (420 views); M424749 (482 views); M424798 (393 views); M424787 (405 views); M424819 (389 views); M424788 (393 views); M424771 (481 views); M424815 (382 views); M424794 (392 views); M424753 (482 views); M424765 (483 views); M424774 (545 views); M424828 (394 views); M424757 (496 views); M424800 (380 views); M424823 (386 views); M424835 (412 views); M424742 (478 views); M424806 (625 views); M424812 (385 views); M424846 (210 views); M424848 (222 views); M424944 (230 views); M424913 (379 views); M424872 (226 views); M424918 (227 views); M424942 (222 views); M424914 (306 views); M424886 (224 views); M424950 (221 views); M424883 (240 views); M424951 (239 views); M424865 (225 views); M424923 (221 views); M424853 (232 views); M424930 (207 views); M424954 (231 views); M424932 (238 views); M424885 (240 views); M424890 (223 views); M424869 (232 views); M424845 (235 views); M424936 (232 views); M424907 (231 views); M424863 (234 views); M424903 (226 views); M424939 (232 views); M424896 (240 views); M424880 (234 views); M424891 (236 views); M424881 (235 views); M424858 (206 views); M424908 (231 views); M424910 (224 views); M424943 (240 views); M424919 (237 views); M424882 (207 views); M424901 (237 views); M424955 (225 views); M424842 (292 views); M424888 (220 views); M424898 (225 views); M424902 (235 views); M424946 (224 views); M424847 (221 views); M424927 (231 views); M424935 (233 views); M424893 (229 views); M424920 (233 views); M424878 (224 views); M424952 (208 views); M424949 (231 views); M424871 (371 views); M424915 (264 views); M424852 (233 views); M424909 (233 views); M424899 (236 views); M424876 (232 views); M424929 (221 views); M424906 (229 views); M424934 (234 views); M424850 (213 views); M424912 (242 views); M424855 (230 views); M424843 (220 views); M424777 (459 views); M424802 (351 views); M424884 (215 views); M424959 (228 views); M424905 (212 views); M424864 (237 views); M424856 (218 views); M424897 (216 views); M424838 (236 views); M424894 (217 views); M424874 (226 views); M424956 (227 views); M424866 (266 views); M424859 (224 views); M424875 (225 views); M424868 (216 views); M424937 (227 views); M424844 (222 views); M424867 (211 views); M424961 (231 views); M424938 (231 views); M424947 (240 views); M424960 (235 views); M424862 (243 views); M424945 (232 views); M424889 (230 views); M424928 (203 views); M424841 (287 views); M424900 (218 views); M424931 (205 views); M424877 (226 views); M424870 (206 views); M424924 (231 views); M424860 (213 views); M424861 (216 views); M424895 (233 views); M424839 (318 views); M424873 (215 views); M424941 (233 views); M424911 (210 views); M424953 (231 views); M424837 (204 views); M424849 (225 views); M424887 (222 views); M424926 (226 views); M424940 (231 views); M424948 (228 views); M424854 (227 views); M424933 (209 views); M424857 (204 views); M424840 (351 views); M424851 (233 views); M424879 (230 views); M424921 (275 views); M424917 (210 views); M424957 (241 views); M424925 (225 views); M424892 (219 views); M424922 (237 views); M424958 (225 views); M424737 (525 views); M424792 (405 views); M424789 (399 views); M424831 (423 views); M424762 (495 views); M424808 (367 views); M424817 (386 views); M424761 (518 views); M424916 (228 views); M424904 (244 views); M425017 (2 views); M425072 (3 views); |
Documents list | 1042 | |
Views for media list | 3708 | |
Specimen list | 31842 | |
Taxon list | 5636 | |
Bibliography | 855 |
Project downloads
type | number of downloads | Individual items downloaded (where applicable) |
Total downloads from project | 290 | |
Project downloads | 285 | |
Media downloads | 1 | M425072 (1 download); |
Document downloads | 1 | Supplementary Material (1 download); |
Matrix downloads | 3 | Ictaluridae+Cranoglanididae (3 downloads); |