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: 102473
- 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 | 102473 | |
Project overview | 2589 | |
Matrix views | 1460 | Matrix landing page (1192 views); Cyclotella qualitative characters (268 views); |
Media views | 82118 | Media search (3779 views); M424498 (729 views); M424509 (586 views); M424547 (406 views); M424572 (364 views); M424488 (520 views); M424487 (483 views); M424502 (499 views); M424485 (475 views); M424541 (402 views); M424520 (406 views); M424562 (430 views); M424504 (476 views); M424529 (403 views); M424531 (434 views); M424567 (407 views); M424538 (421 views); M424500 (550 views); M424482 (468 views); M424511 (549 views); M424551 (427 views); M424478 (486 views); M424568 (403 views); M424609 (278 views); M424664 (243 views); M424586 (301 views); M424690 (258 views); M424651 (261 views); M424695 (252 views); M424614 (244 views); M424688 (292 views); M424640 (244 views); M424663 (244 views); M424677 (251 views); M424685 (276 views); M424655 (240 views); M424595 (292 views); M424696 (246 views); M424699 (248 views); M424604 (295 views); M424556 (437 views); M424607 (275 views); M424686 (256 views); M424659 (249 views); M424577 (413 views); M424544 (429 views); M424493 (500 views); M424570 (405 views); M424512 (480 views); M424650 (244 views); M424674 (242 views); M424611 (274 views); M424675 (259 views); M424693 (259 views); M424658 (259 views); M424592 (277 views); M424616 (273 views); M424589 (293 views); M424700 (271 views); M424631 (248 views); M424601 (299 views); M424641 (245 views); M424638 (235 views); M424625 (264 views); M424612 (265 views); M424662 (252 views); M424584 (269 views); M424669 (233 views); M424596 (294 views); M424665 (241 views); M424642 (249 views); M424639 (233 views); M424678 (242 views); M424585 (300 views); M424646 (255 views); M424626 (273 views); M424666 (272 views); M424661 (249 views); M424579 (283 views); M424636 (256 views); M424652 (254 views); M424682 (254 views); M424599 (262 views); M424657 (242 views); M424582 (274 views); M424583 (302 views); M424672 (241 views); M424689 (255 views); M424597 (237 views); M424550 (388 views); M424491 (477 views); M424539 (397 views); M424533 (380 views); M424554 (430 views); M424517 (453 views); M424480 (488 views); M424522 (430 views); M424495 (489 views); M424507 (530 views); M424569 (366 views); M424676 (247 views); M424610 (295 views); M424492 (508 views); M424654 (248 views); M424540 (410 views); M424602 (270 views); M424647 (236 views); M424645 (230 views); M424573 (378 views); M424588 (281 views); M424593 (290 views); M424660 (271 views); M424598 (266 views); M424615 (288 views); M424701 (308 views); M424608 (275 views); M424667 (262 views); M424697 (263 views); M424648 (257 views); M424668 (236 views); M424549 (401 views); M424523 (483 views); M424687 (262 views); M424627 (251 views); M424624 (301 views); M424581 (243 views); M424643 (248 views); M424670 (255 views); M424629 (252 views); M424628 (271 views); M424578 (268 views); M424622 (312 views); M424594 (285 views); M424606 (287 views); M424694 (230 views); M424656 (263 views); M424632 (251 views); M424680 (246 views); M424580 (251 views); M424698 (266 views); M424692 (220 views); M424618 (282 views); M424635 (245 views); M424673 (251 views); M424634 (216 views); M424603 (263 views); M424630 (283 views); M424633 (283 views); M424613 (264 views); M424683 (254 views); M424681 (244 views); M424619 (281 views); M424620 (266 views); M424679 (270 views); M424591 (260 views); M424605 (266 views); M424617 (253 views); M424590 (276 views); M424621 (293 views); M424653 (241 views); M424684 (233 views); M424691 (232 views); M424587 (305 views); M424637 (285 views); M424600 (269 views); M424671 (256 views); M424649 (245 views); M424501 (458 views); M424483 (601 views); M424565 (418 views); M424490 (492 views); M424481 (491 views); M424536 (371 views); M424564 (408 views); M424548 (416 views); M424532 (400 views); M424489 (489 views); M424576 (372 views); M424534 (430 views); M424486 (476 views); M424546 (456 views); M424537 (415 views); M424513 (460 views); M424574 (444 views); M424496 (468 views); M424527 (416 views); M424508 (477 views); M424557 (411 views); M424530 (417 views); M424566 (476 views); M424571 (405 views); M424552 (440 views); M424525 (429 views); M424519 (515 views); M424515 (464 views); M424563 (407 views); M424516 (479 views); M424543 (431 views); M424506 (514 views); M424503 (468 views); M424514 (477 views); M424560 (426 views); M424542 (440 views); M424499 (466 views); M424575 (462 views); M424545 (443 views); M424559 (400 views); M424526 (428 views); M424555 (432 views); M424497 (499 views); M424702 (266 views); M424479 (502 views); M424558 (404 views); M424623 (270 views); M424521 (438 views); M424484 (485 views); M424553 (443 views); M424535 (430 views); M424518 (418 views); M424644 (239 views); M424494 (623 views); M424528 (405 views); M424505 (503 views); M424712 (10 views); M424561 (420 views); M424524 (460 views); M424510 (475 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 | 1649 | |
Specimen list | 9680 | |
Views for media list | 2994 | |
Bibliography | 910 | |
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); |