@article{645def02eee943b0b39a76c26f3580a3,
title = "Accelerating the digitization of biodiversity research specimens through online public participation",
abstract = "A goal of the biodiversity research community is to digitize the majority of the one billion specimens in US collections by 2020. Meeting this ambitious goal requires increased collaboration and technological innovation and broader engagement beyond the walls of universities and museums. Engaging the public in digitization promises to both serve the digitizing institutions and further the public understanding of biodiversity science. We discuss three broad areas accessible to public participants that will accelerate research progress: label and ledger transcription, georeferencing from locality descriptions, and specimen annotation from images. We illustrate each activity, compare useful tools, present best practices and standards, and identify gaps in our knowledge and areas for improvement. The field of public participation in digitization of biodiversity research specimens is in a growth phase with many emerging opportunities for scientists, educators, and the public, as well as broader communication with complementary projects in other areas (e.g., the digital humanities).",
keywords = "citizen science, crowdsourcing, digital humanities, digitization of biodiversity research collections, public participation in scientific research",
author = "Ellwood, {Elizabeth R.} and Dunckel, {Betty A.} and Paul Flemons and Robert Guralnick and Gil Nelson and Greg Newman and Sarah Newman and Deborah Paul and Greg Riccardi and Nelson Rios and Seltmann, {Katja C.} and Mast, {Austin R.}",
note = "Funding Information: The authors thank the following people for useful conversations on this topic: Melody Basham, Jim Beach, Jason Best, Cathy Bester, David Bonter, Ben Brumfield, Michael Denslow, Renato Figueiredo, Jose Fortes, Charlotte Germain-Aubrey, Michael Giddens, Ed Gilbert, Jonathan Hendricks, Austin Hendy, Andrew Hill, Kevin Love, Bruce MacFadden, Elizabeth Martin, Andrea Matsunaga, Tom Nash, Larry Page, Richard Primack, Pam Soltis, Julie Speelman, Patrick Sweeney, Barbara Thiers, Alex Thompson, Bill Watson, Andrea Wiggins, Nathan Wilson, Alison Young, and Jessica Zelt. iDigBio is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation{\textquoteright}s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections Program (Cooperative Agreement no. EF-1115210). The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed under cooperative agreement by NEON. This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement no. EF-1029808. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 The Author(s).",
year = "2015",
month = mar,
day = "30",
doi = "10.1093/biosci/biv005",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "65",
pages = "383--396",
journal = "BioScience",
issn = "0006-3568",
publisher = "American Institute of Biological Sciences",
number = "4",
}