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: 120298
- 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 | 120298 | |
Project overview | 2607 | |
Media views | 83152 | Media search (3921 views); M286400 (536 views); M286426 (493 views); M286404 (504 views); M286437 (419 views); M286457 (460 views); M286385 (514 views); M286439 (420 views); M286417 (487 views); M286393 (491 views); M286427 (426 views); M286444 (421 views); M286389 (519 views); M286473 (434 views); M286401 (536 views); M286448 (438 views); M286425 (470 views); M286395 (528 views); M286432 (452 views); M286469 (417 views); M286454 (438 views); M286410 (540 views); M286409 (502 views); M286429 (419 views); M286438 (430 views); M286411 (491 views); M286408 (541 views); M286452 (409 views); M286386 (517 views); M286466 (452 views); M286461 (447 views); M286380 (496 views); M286424 (431 views); M286388 (553 views); M286446 (432 views); M286447 (426 views); M286453 (417 views); M286450 (502 views); M286433 (450 views); M286478 (419 views); M286384 (519 views); M286451 (450 views); M286470 (436 views); M286459 (485 views); M286467 (434 views); M286394 (555 views); M286455 (439 views); M286406 (515 views); M286413 (550 views); M286407 (532 views); M286434 (444 views); M286392 (529 views); M286435 (445 views); M286445 (422 views); M286382 (523 views); M286415 (502 views); M286398 (498 views); M286421 (455 views); M286399 (498 views); M286416 (507 views); M286468 (442 views); M286390 (534 views); M286418 (536 views); M286397 (508 views); M286476 (407 views); M286477 (407 views); M286458 (437 views); M286412 (488 views); M286460 (412 views); M286441 (415 views); M286414 (500 views); M286403 (500 views); M286474 (432 views); M286471 (429 views); M286465 (439 views); M286428 (449 views); M286379 (778 views); M286431 (440 views); M286430 (430 views); M286472 (422 views); M286456 (436 views); M286391 (528 views); M286405 (520 views); M286463 (470 views); M286396 (519 views); M286422 (514 views); M286387 (501 views); M286420 (454 views); M286423 (458 views); M286381 (510 views); M286475 (440 views); M286402 (529 views); M286443 (420 views); M286383 (521 views); M286491 (252 views); M286563 (269 views); M286543 (262 views); M307855 (283 views); M286515 (250 views); M286449 (444 views); M286517 (246 views); M286419 (484 views); M286504 (244 views); M286542 (244 views); M286510 (268 views); M286555 (264 views); M286496 (246 views); M307854 (245 views); M307866 (222 views); M307873 (219 views); M286557 (255 views); M286485 (234 views); M286512 (252 views); M286464 (424 views); M286462 (434 views); M286436 (423 views); M286442 (454 views); M286440 (459 views); M307875 (260 views); M307816 (259 views); M307861 (245 views); M286495 (254 views); M286553 (239 views); M286558 (247 views); M286539 (284 views); M286509 (248 views); M286556 (250 views); M307858 (250 views); M307862 (252 views); M307868 (215 views); M286490 (259 views); M307871 (227 views); M286544 (264 views); M286494 (257 views); M286588 (252 views); M286540 (262 views); M286551 (239 views); M286519 (246 views); M286549 (265 views); M286493 (241 views); M286565 (262 views); M286566 (257 views); M286537 (251 views); M307867 (243 views); M286562 (252 views); M286507 (264 views); M307813 (267 views); M307817 (260 views); M307851 (260 views); M286568 (246 views); M286506 (258 views); M286529 (263 views); M286554 (244 views); M286513 (258 views); M286559 (278 views); M286502 (239 views); M286505 (268 views); M307774 (366 views); M286518 (268 views); M286486 (282 views); M286533 (258 views); M286514 (271 views); M286520 (276 views); M307857 (253 views); M286564 (268 views); M286541 (253 views); M286536 (263 views); M286488 (239 views); M286516 (324 views); M307864 (265 views); M286560 (257 views); M286482 (260 views); M286497 (242 views); M286522 (236 views); M286548 (252 views); M286527 (257 views); M286528 (268 views); M286550 (239 views); M307870 (243 views); M307874 (228 views); M307865 (248 views); M307859 (229 views); M286498 (243 views); M286567 (257 views); M286561 (309 views); M286508 (249 views); M286530 (255 views); M287171 (313 views); M286538 (257 views); M286501 (252 views); M286489 (275 views); M286500 (244 views); M307860 (254 views); M286547 (255 views); M286481 (244 views); M286503 (249 views); M286524 (254 views); M307815 (260 views); M286499 (272 views); M307869 (232 views); M286535 (261 views); M307863 (261 views); M286531 (249 views); M286479 (253 views); M307818 (259 views); M286492 (263 views); M286484 (236 views); M307872 (221 views); M286483 (229 views); M286525 (251 views); M307853 (252 views); M286552 (272 views); M307856 (245 views); M307852 (252 views); M287172 (252 views); M286480 (243 views); M286523 (267 views); M286587 (238 views); M286534 (247 views); M286532 (247 views); M286487 (265 views); M286521 (248 views); M286526 (237 views); M286511 (246 views); M286546 (255 views); M286545 (253 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 | 1476 | Matrix landing page (1187 views); Nematocyst matrix (289 views); |
Documents list | 1148 | |
Bibliography | 888 | |
Views for media list | 4220 | |
Taxon list | 8702 | |
Specimen list | 18105 |
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); |