Data Jamboree 2/Annotation Experiment

Background:

The curation experiment was given to five curators on the third day of the data jamboree. The goals of the experiment were to assess curation consistency among a group of new curators, and to identify areas of improvement in curator training, ontology development, and software improvement.

Participant Training:

Only one of the five curators had experience using Phenex prior to the data roundup. Training for all curators consisted of:

• A hands-on, group curation exercise led and assisted by experienced curators given on the first day of the data roundup
• Two days of individual curation work on publications related to each participant's area of taxonomic expertise, with assistance from project personnel
• For reference, participants were given an Annotation Guide with examples of character types commonly encountered in the fish systematic literature