Research Grade
A personal goal that I have for this bioblitz is for all the observations to be research grade. Research grade observations can be used by scientists all around the world and must meet 5 requirements:
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Evidence of what you saw
This could be a picture or a recording of sound -
What you saw
Identify the Genus and Species name of the organism - if you are unsure, choose a group of organisms that your observation belongs to such as plants, birds, or dragonflies. It's okay not to know, that is what the community is here for! -
Where you saw it
Record the GPS coordinates of where you took the observation. If you have a smartphone, the iNaturalist app will do this automatically. If you are using a camera, you may need a GPS device. We will try to provide Garmin devices for those who need them. -
When you saw it
Take note of the time and date of your encounter, not the time and date of when you post it on iNaturalist. Once again, the iNaturalist app will do this automatically -
Who saw it
Be proud of your observation and put your name on it! Post your observation on your iNaturalist account to get the credit you deserve!
With these five components, you can make a difference by participating in communal citizen science! Easy enough!
There is one last thing to note. For the observation to be research grade, there must be a 2/3 consensus on the identification of the species. To help with this, I ask that everyone take a look at the observations we collect and see if you can identify the species found during this bioblitz. It'll be fun and I'm sure you'll see some really awesome pictures! Most of all, have fun with it and hopefully learn something new!
Comments
Observations getting to Research Grade prematurely is a pervasive problem on iNat. If you're going to emphasize getting observations to RG, you should also remind people that it totally defeats the purpose of Research Grade to add an ID just because they trust the ID by another person.
I can see the desire to get to research grade being a problem being a problem. But for me getting to research grade is a measure of confidence in my ability to correctly ID things. I'm trying to learn plants. Having been a forester, I know many very well. I'm not sure there are enough competent eyes seeing my observations. I have many plant observations I am very confident on. I think they should be research grade. But I don't think anyone has seen the observation. For this year, my rate of research grade is only 35%. It should be higher.
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