Project 950: M. A. O'Leary, K. Alphonse, M. Arce Hernandez, D. Cavaliere, A. Cirranello, T. Dietterich, M. Julius, S. Kaufman, E. Law, M. Passarotti, A. Reft, J. Robalino, N. B. Simmons, S. Smith, D. Stevenson, E. Theriot, P. M. Velazco, R. Walls, M. Yu, M. Daly. 2018. Crowds replicate performance of scientific experts scoring phylogenetic matrices of phenotypes. Systematic Biology. 67 (1):49-60. (In Press)
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: https://doi.org/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: 51528
- 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 ![]() | ||||||
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 | 51528 | |
Project overview | 1549 | |
Media views | 35276 | Media search (1719 views); M286400 (253 views); M286426 (221 views); M286404 (215 views); M286437 (187 views); M286457 (221 views); M286385 (230 views); M286439 (200 views); M286417 (212 views); M286393 (216 views); M286427 (185 views); M286444 (199 views); M286389 (229 views); M286473 (210 views); M286401 (234 views); M286448 (208 views); M286425 (199 views); M286395 (251 views); M286432 (213 views); M286469 (182 views); M286454 (216 views); M286410 (262 views); M286409 (228 views); M286429 (188 views); M286438 (189 views); M286411 (218 views); M286408 (244 views); M286452 (176 views); M286386 (223 views); M286466 (210 views); M286461 (203 views); M286380 (238 views); M286424 (188 views); M286388 (252 views); M286446 (207 views); M286447 (195 views); M286453 (193 views); M286450 (270 views); M286433 (206 views); M286478 (174 views); M286384 (230 views); M286451 (211 views); M286470 (209 views); M286459 (241 views); M286467 (193 views); M286394 (254 views); M286455 (184 views); M286406 (234 views); M286413 (267 views); M286407 (247 views); M286434 (203 views); M286392 (233 views); M286435 (207 views); M286445 (201 views); M286382 (233 views); M286415 (221 views); M286398 (222 views); M286421 (194 views); M286399 (235 views); M286416 (225 views); M286468 (212 views); M286390 (259 views); M286418 (244 views); M286397 (219 views); M286476 (193 views); M286477 (194 views); M286458 (210 views); M286412 (209 views); M286460 (185 views); M286441 (186 views); M286414 (213 views); M286403 (223 views); M286474 (201 views); M286471 (208 views); M286465 (197 views); M286428 (210 views); M286379 (473 views); M286431 (209 views); M286430 (199 views); M286472 (181 views); M286456 (208 views); M286391 (237 views); M286405 (237 views); M286463 (228 views); M286396 (239 views); M286422 (234 views); M286387 (234 views); M286420 (191 views); M286423 (206 views); M286381 (227 views); M286475 (207 views); M286402 (241 views); M286443 (196 views); M286383 (237 views); M286491 (88 views); M286563 (103 views); M286543 (95 views); M307855 (100 views); M286515 (96 views); M286449 (210 views); M286517 (93 views); M286419 (200 views); M286504 (94 views); M286542 (96 views); M286510 (100 views); M286555 (93 views); M286496 (97 views); M307854 (95 views); M307866 (91 views); M307873 (85 views); M286557 (88 views); M286485 (96 views); M286512 (91 views); M286464 (191 views); M286462 (195 views); M286436 (198 views); M286442 (208 views); M286440 (199 views); M307875 (93 views); M307816 (105 views); M307861 (93 views); M286495 (95 views); M286553 (96 views); M286558 (92 views); M286539 (108 views); M286509 (96 views); M286556 (88 views); M307858 (86 views); M307862 (95 views); M307868 (91 views); M286490 (105 views); M307871 (90 views); M286544 (113 views); M286494 (103 views); M286588 (96 views); M286540 (93 views); M286551 (90 views); M286519 (95 views); M286549 (94 views); M286493 (93 views); M286565 (95 views); M286566 (91 views); M286537 (92 views); M307867 (94 views); M286562 (90 views); M286507 (91 views); M307813 (102 views); M307817 (95 views); M307851 (101 views); M286568 (99 views); M286506 (94 views); M286529 (94 views); M286554 (94 views); M286513 (90 views); M286559 (95 views); M286502 (96 views); M286505 (93 views); M307774 (150 views); M286518 (91 views); M286486 (111 views); M286533 (90 views); M286514 (101 views); M286520 (97 views); M307857 (93 views); M286564 (98 views); M286541 (104 views); M286536 (94 views); M286488 (86 views); M286516 (122 views); M307864 (103 views); M286560 (90 views); M286482 (99 views); M286497 (96 views); M286522 (86 views); M286548 (101 views); M286527 (98 views); M286528 (100 views); M286550 (86 views); M307870 (90 views); M307874 (100 views); M307865 (96 views); M307859 (82 views); M286498 (96 views); M286567 (86 views); M286561 (119 views); M286508 (88 views); M286530 (95 views); M287171 (95 views); M286538 (90 views); M286501 (96 views); M286489 (99 views); M286500 (92 views); M307860 (92 views); M286547 (89 views); M286481 (93 views); M286503 (82 views); M286524 (91 views); M307815 (91 views); M286499 (96 views); M307869 (94 views); M286535 (89 views); M307863 (92 views); M286531 (92 views); M286479 (89 views); M307818 (93 views); M286492 (91 views); M286484 (88 views); M307872 (94 views); M286483 (90 views); M286525 (91 views); M307853 (89 views); M286552 (85 views); M307856 (86 views); M307852 (94 views); M287172 (91 views); M286480 (92 views); M286523 (94 views); M286587 (84 views); M286534 (85 views); M286532 (90 views); M286487 (94 views); M286521 (92 views); M286526 (87 views); M286511 (90 views); M286546 (95 views); M286545 (90 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 | 650 | Matrix landing page (596 views); Nematocyst matrix (54 views); |
Documents list | 579 | |
Bibliography | 407 | |
Views for media list | 1755 | |
Taxon list | 4351 | |
Specimen list | 6961 |
Project downloads 
type | number of downloads | Individual items downloaded (where applicable) |
Total downloads from project | 117 | |
Project downloads | 112 | |
Matrix downloads | 3 | Nematocyst matrix (3 downloads); |
Document downloads | 1 | Supplementary Material (1 download); |
Media downloads | 1 | M286379 (1 download); |