Notes from Nature - Ranges: Mammal Traits from western North America

This FAQ covers the basic questions that the project team has already received or is anticipating. If you notice things that are missing or need clarification, please use Talk to suggest edits and changes.

1.) Interpretation: In general, you should minimize interpretation of open-ended fields and enter information verbatim. This way, we can better achieve consensus when checking multiple records against one another. However, some discretion would be nice. Here are examples:

Interpretation that you should make: Simple spacing and capitalization errors (e.g. “3miN. of oakland” should be “3 mi N. of Oakland”).

Interpretation you should leave to us: Don’t interpret abbreviations, we’ll sort that out. (e.g. “Convict Lk.”).

2.) Non-English text: While we are currently focused on English language labels, on occasion you may encounter labels in other languages. Transcribe these exactly as written (do not translate to English). Match label content to transcription fields as best as you can.

3.) Spelling mistakes: Transcribe exactly as written, unless you have looked it up and are absolutely certain of a simple spelling mistake. In this case, you can enter the correct spelling. When you make a correction, please use the Done&Talk button to add a comment describing the change; it’s also recommended that you provide a reliable web citation for the change if it’s anything other than a spelling correction of a common word. You can include #error or another relevant hashtag in your comment to flag the type of correction you made.

4.) Problem records: If you come across a problem record that may need to be addressed by a Researcher, or member of the project team, like a faulty image or other problem record, you can flag the record by commenting on it with #error or another relevant hashtag.

5.) Capitalization: Sometimes information may be in all capital letters on the labels. Unless this is an abbreviation, you should capitalize only the first letter of every word in your transcription (e.g. “COASTAL PLAIN PROVINCE” should be transcribed as “Coastal Plain Province”).

6.) Missing information: When information in a label field is not given on the specimen label, you should leave the field blank (in the case of text entry fields that is not required) or select “Unknown” or “Not Shown” in the drop-down lists.

7.) Special Characters: What should you type when there is a special character in a text string, such as a degree symbol or language-specific characters? You can do an online search for the symbol or copy and paste it from your word processor’s symbols menu. Some commonly encountered symbols are included at the end of this document.

8.) Information to Omit/Skip: You may encounter labels that contain text that does not get transcribed. This is OK as many expeditions will not necessarily ask for every piece of information to be transcribed. However if you do find something interesting or if you're unsure, feel free to use Done&Talk to post a comment about it.

9.) How to deal with measurement values: Many specimens will include a group of numbers separated by hyphens. For examples, most mammals are formatted 170-87-22-8. This is code for Total Length - Tail length - Hind foot length - Ear length. If you can recognize the format and associate them with specific fields then please do that. If for some reason the format is different or you are unsure then you can always enter everything as is into the Measurements (verbatim) field.

Note that bats tend to have more measurements such as Total Length - Tail length - Hind Foot length - Ear length - Tragus length - Forearm (radius) length. However, note that bats values tend to be less consistent meaning that you may not always be able to tell which number matches a specific body part. In those cases you should also use the Measurements (verbatim) field to enter everything how it appears.

10. Weight values: Weight (or mass) values tend to be listed last. In addition, they are frequently proceeded by a triple bar (≡). For example, 271-88-41-20≡186.6 means that the weight is 186.6.

11. Weight units: The vast majority of specimens will have weights listed in grams and as such units do not need to be listed. If another unit is listed then be sure to enter it in Weight units (if recorded).

Special symbols: You should be able to find symbols in word or by doing an online search and copy and paste. Here are a few:
– triple bar: ≡

– degree symbol for coordinates: °

– plus minus: ±

– fractions: ⅛ ¼ ⅓ ⅜ ½ ⅝ ⅔ ¾ ⅞

– non-English symbols: Ä ä å Å ð ë ğ Ñ ñ õ Ö ö Ü ü Ž ž

Other symbols may be found on Penn State’s Symbol Codes: Accents, Symbols and Foreign Scripts page: http://sites.psu.edu/symbolcodes/codehtml/