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.