What is an Annotation?

Annotation allows users to add additional information to objects in the Morphbank relational database. An annotation is a comment about an object (could be an image, collection, or taxon name) that is stored separately from the object itself. Annotations are identified in Morphbank by a unique internal id.

The created annotations are published (viewable to the world) when released by the creator (default 6 months if not otherwise notified).

Guidelines for working with annotations

A user may have multiple annotations that will be identified by a title on the screen. Since the annotation will have a unique internal identifier, the name may be duplicated but is not recommended. (When making mass annotations all will have the same initial title in My Manager > Annotations tab).

Any logged-in user can annotate any image, any set of images in a collection or taxon name that is released. Any logged-in user can annotate any image or collection (of images) that has not been released provided they belong to the group who owns the image or image collection. With the release of the latest (Beta) version of Morphbank 2.7, Annotations are managed from the Header Menu > Tools > My Manager > Annotations tab interface.

Unpublished owned annotations
A user may:

• edit the makeup of their own unpublished annotations.
• delete an unpublished, owned annotation.

Unpublished annotations owned by other users
A user may:

• browse unpublished annotations of other users within groups to which he/she belongs.
• view unpublished annotations of other users within groups to which he/she belongs.

Published annotations:

• cannot be edited.
• are viewable to the world.

The user's group/user's annotation relationship:

• The user's annotation will be shared with a group in Morphbank. The user must declare which group they belong before they create the annotation (declared through Select Group in the login process) and that annotation is shared with the declared group.
• The annotation will be immediately viewable to all users in that group (The annotation cannot be accessed by the world until it is published).
• Although the owner may edit their own unpublished annotation, other members of the group may not.

Types of Annotations

• Determination

  : This is the most complex of the annotation types and is designed to offer biologists the ability to remotely collaborate on the determination (assignment of a taxonomic name); and to offer the ability to supply additional details concerning the taxonomic name associated with a specimen. When Determination is selected as the annotation type, additional field options will be available:
  1. Determination annotation will give users the ability to view and respond to a list of determination annotations that are related to the current object.
  2. Users can choose to comment on the previous determinations, select a new taxonomic name from the ITIS database, or add a new taxon.
  3. Users are required to provide Morphbank with the source of the identification (defaults to the name of the logged-in user) and resources used in making this determination annotation.
  An annotation title, comments and date to publish are the remaining required fields in this option. (Details for this annotation type are located in the Add Annotations documentation).
Note: Even though the image was selected for annotation, it is really the associated specimen that is linked to the determination annotation. For example, if two users create a determination annotation using two different images from the same specimen, when the determination annotations are viewed for that specimen, both will be seen as related annotations. If a determination annotation is written for a collection of images there will be an identical determination annotation record written for each specimen in the collection.

• General

  : This annotation type is used to add general comments about an image or collection of images. The required fields in this option include an annotation title, general comments and date to publish (The publish date defaults to 6 months from the date the collection was established). (Details for this annotation type are located in the Add Annotations documentation).

• Legacy

  : General and legacy annotations differ only in the source of the annotation. Data in a legacy annotation was previously generated and stored elsewhere prior to the inclusion in Morphbank. As in a general annotation, a legacy annotation is used to add general comments about an image or collection of images. The required fields in this option include an annotation title, general comments and date to publish (The publish date defaults to 6 months from the date the collection was established). (Details for this annotation type are located in the Add Annotations documentation).

• XML

  : This option allows the user to upload an XML document into the Morphbank database and use it as a general annotation. All other fields match the general and legacy annotations. The required fields include an annotation title, general comments and date to publish (The publish date defaults to 6 months from the date the collection was established). The XML document is limited in size to 64K. (Details for this annotation type are located in the Add Annotations documentation).

• Taxon Name

  : This option gives the Morphbank user the ability to leave comments about any published Taxon Name in Morphbank. The comments will be visible to anyone looking at these names. This type of annotation is published immediately upon clicking "Submit." Details for this annotation type can be found by jumping to Annotate Taxon Names.
• Mass Annotations