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: 121838
- 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 | 121838 | |
Project overview | 2625 | |
Media views | 84276 | Media search (3951 views); M286400 (544 views); M286426 (498 views); M286404 (510 views); M286437 (426 views); M286457 (465 views); M286385 (519 views); M286439 (426 views); M286417 (492 views); M286393 (497 views); M286427 (432 views); M286444 (427 views); M286389 (525 views); M286473 (439 views); M286401 (543 views); M286448 (443 views); M286425 (477 views); M286395 (535 views); M286432 (457 views); M286469 (423 views); M286454 (444 views); M286410 (546 views); M286409 (509 views); M286429 (424 views); M286438 (437 views); M286411 (498 views); M286408 (548 views); M286452 (415 views); M286386 (522 views); M286466 (459 views); M286461 (452 views); M286380 (503 views); M286424 (437 views); M286388 (558 views); M286446 (437 views); M286447 (432 views); M286453 (423 views); M286450 (509 views); M286433 (456 views); M286478 (425 views); M286384 (525 views); M286451 (455 views); M286470 (442 views); M286459 (493 views); M286467 (440 views); M286394 (567 views); M286455 (445 views); M286406 (521 views); M286413 (557 views); M286407 (538 views); M286434 (451 views); M286392 (534 views); M286435 (451 views); M286445 (428 views); M286382 (528 views); M286415 (509 views); M286398 (504 views); M286421 (461 views); M286399 (504 views); M286416 (513 views); M286468 (448 views); M286390 (539 views); M286418 (541 views); M286397 (512 views); M286476 (413 views); M286477 (412 views); M286458 (444 views); M286412 (494 views); M286460 (419 views); M286441 (422 views); M286414 (505 views); M286403 (505 views); M286474 (440 views); M286471 (434 views); M286465 (445 views); M286428 (455 views); M286379 (785 views); M286431 (446 views); M286430 (438 views); M286472 (429 views); M286456 (441 views); M286391 (534 views); M286405 (529 views); M286463 (477 views); M286396 (524 views); M286422 (520 views); M286387 (507 views); M286420 (460 views); M286423 (463 views); M286381 (517 views); M286475 (447 views); M286402 (536 views); M286443 (426 views); M286383 (526 views); M286491 (256 views); M286563 (273 views); M286543 (265 views); M307855 (287 views); M286515 (254 views); M286449 (451 views); M286517 (250 views); M286419 (490 views); M286504 (248 views); M286542 (248 views); M286510 (271 views); M286555 (268 views); M286496 (249 views); M307854 (249 views); M307866 (226 views); M307873 (225 views); M286557 (259 views); M286485 (237 views); M286512 (258 views); M286464 (429 views); M286462 (440 views); M286436 (429 views); M286442 (461 views); M286440 (467 views); M307875 (264 views); M307816 (262 views); M307861 (249 views); M286495 (258 views); M286553 (243 views); M286558 (251 views); M286539 (287 views); M286509 (253 views); M286556 (255 views); M307858 (255 views); M307862 (255 views); M307868 (218 views); M286490 (263 views); M307871 (230 views); M286544 (267 views); M286494 (262 views); M286588 (255 views); M286540 (265 views); M286551 (243 views); M286519 (249 views); M286549 (268 views); M286493 (245 views); M286565 (265 views); M286566 (260 views); M286537 (255 views); M307867 (247 views); M286562 (256 views); M286507 (267 views); M307813 (270 views); M307817 (264 views); M307851 (264 views); M286568 (251 views); M286506 (262 views); M286529 (267 views); M286554 (247 views); M286513 (261 views); M286559 (282 views); M286502 (243 views); M286505 (273 views); M307774 (370 views); M286518 (272 views); M286486 (286 views); M286533 (262 views); M286514 (275 views); M286520 (281 views); M307857 (258 views); M286564 (272 views); M286541 (258 views); M286536 (267 views); M286488 (242 views); M286516 (327 views); M307864 (270 views); M286560 (260 views); M286482 (265 views); M286497 (247 views); M286522 (239 views); M286548 (255 views); M286527 (261 views); M286528 (271 views); M286550 (243 views); M307870 (246 views); M307874 (233 views); M307865 (251 views); M307859 (233 views); M286498 (246 views); M286567 (262 views); M286561 (312 views); M286508 (252 views); M286530 (258 views); M287171 (317 views); M286538 (260 views); M286501 (257 views); M286489 (279 views); M286500 (247 views); M307860 (257 views); M286547 (258 views); M286481 (248 views); M286503 (253 views); M286524 (258 views); M307815 (263 views); M286499 (276 views); M307869 (236 views); M286535 (265 views); M307863 (264 views); M286531 (252 views); M286479 (256 views); M307818 (262 views); M286492 (267 views); M286484 (240 views); M307872 (226 views); M286483 (234 views); M286525 (254 views); M307853 (255 views); M286552 (276 views); M307856 (249 views); M307852 (255 views); M287172 (257 views); M286480 (247 views); M286523 (270 views); M286587 (243 views); M286534 (251 views); M286532 (251 views); M286487 (270 views); M286521 (251 views); M286526 (241 views); M286511 (251 views); M286546 (258 views); M286545 (257 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 | 1496 | Matrix landing page (1202 views); Nematocyst matrix (294 views); |
Documents list | 1160 | |
Bibliography | 893 | |
Views for media list | 4274 | |
Taxon list | 8810 | |
Specimen list | 18304 |
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); |