Notes From Nature Talk

Question about what to transcribe and what to omit

  • am.zooni by am.zooni

    (picking up from comments on ANN0004e1p)

    I commented that I didn't transcribe a common name that was undecipherable, and @Mr. Kevvy replied 'We don't transcribe the common name either...'

    Now I'm confused. I thought that we were supposed to transcribe everything on the label, except the 'preprinted form' stuff like 'Herbarium of...', and for scientific names including only the genus, species and (if any) subspecies/variant names but omitting scientist names/abbreviations. (The latter is my reading - or possibly misreading - of the FAQ.)

    I have discovered more than once that I misunderstood the FAQ or tips on first reading, so I won't be surprised if I've gotten another thing wrong. Can a scientist or @Mr. Kevvy or someone else clarify?

    When present, should be omit or transcribe the family name? common name? Scientist names in the specimen's scientific name?
    What about collector name 'A. Person and A. N. Other' My understanding of the FAQ is to separate multiple names with a comma, but other notes in the FAQ say 'transcribe exactly' so should this form of collector name be transcribed with 'and' or a comma? Are there other things that might be on a label that should not be transcribed?

    Thanks for any help anyone can provide on these sorts of questions. I really do want to produce good and consistent results and not waste the project's time with transcriptions that don't conform to the guidelines. (I know now that many of my earlier ones were 'off' in one way or another.)

    Posted

  • Mr._Kevvy by Mr._Kevvy

    We only add the comma between collector names if there's no other separator ie "with", "and", "&", or "," already, otherwise transcribe verbatim. This is mostly due to collector names being separated on the cards by being on different lines, but our interface is limited to everything being on one line. (I think this is in the existing FAQ already?)

    Posted

  • am.zooni by am.zooni

    Ah, my error; another case where it appears that only half of an instruction sunk in when I first read it. Looking again at the FAQ, I see that it does say 'with no punctuation separating them'.

    I don't see anything in the FAQ about not transcribing the common name, so if that's a guideline we should follow, if probably should be added next time the FAQ is updated.

    Posted

  • Mr._Kevvy by Mr._Kevvy in response to am.zooni's comment.

    Yup I added it should it ever get posted. :^) I asked in one of the FAQ threads and it was confirmed to omit common names (which makes perfect sense because a species may have many common names none of which are standardized so may conflict with others etc. whereas the scientific name is regulated, unique and taxonomic.)

    Posted

  • am.zooni by am.zooni

    Good news about the FAQ, and thanks for working on it. Related: what about the plant family name, which is often on the label? At least in theory, that should be standardized info like the scientific name. Then again, perhaps that means it's redundant and not necessary to transcribe, given that the plant name should always be sufficient to determine the family.

    While the scientific names are intended to be standardized and unique, it appears there is often disagreement. I started checking TPL and ITIS just to double check to prevent transcription typos, but I find it fascinating how many times I find conflicting and sometimes tangled info when I look up names there.

    Posted

  • md68135 by md68135 scientist

    Thanks to you both and I do plan to add Mr Kevvy's suggestion about the common name to the FAQ.

    As for family name (when present) you do not need to add this either. Perhaps this recent blog post will help clarify even more.
    http://blog.notesfromnature.org/2015/06/15/taxonomy-and-notes-from-nature/

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  • am.zooni by am.zooni

    I have been keeping an eye on discussions but not checking the blog; will have to start doing that now! The one about the number of transcriptions is cool - 18,000+ by ONE person?!!!!! That would take me YEARS! Probably decades actually!

    Thanks for writing this blog post about the plant names. I am very new here but am one of those who has gotten hooked. I started checking TPL and then ITIS (TPL has a habit of being down about once a week at a time when I'm transcribing, like for the last hour now) to make sure I wasn't making typos when transcribing the names, but then I started reading the pages and following the links and learning more than a few things. Thanks for the pointers to a few other sites - I will check them out.

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  • CharlotteBio by CharlotteBio

    How are the questions comments and requests handled? There seem to be spots all over for comments and discussion but very little in the way of responses and replies. I have gone back to some of my very early comments from when I first started and don't see that there has been any response - it would be REALLY useful to have time-relevant feedback to questions and comments please!

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