What if you find media attributed to your specimens, but they were contributed by unaffiliated users?

Owned by Doug Boyer
Last updated: Sept 15, 2022
2 min read

When exploring MorphoSource for the first time, many museums may find that there are a large number of scans representing their specimens on MorphoSource even though no one on their staff ever directly contributed media. This happens because researchers can upload media to the platform without direct approval from the cognizant museum collection staff.

The good news is that MorphoSource is designed to allow museums or museum divisions to view and manage media representing its specimens regardless of who uploaded the data. To view published media representing the physical objects managed by a museum or collection, simply head to the museum or collection's Organization page. This can be found by Searching for Organizations or Browsing Organizations. In order to view private media of museum specimens and to begin managing those media, museum staff can establish an Organizational Management Team.

In many cases, museums that establish organizational-management teams will be able to begin taking control over media representing their specimens. The degree of control that museums can exert over media created by unaffiliated users depends on:

  1. The policy agreed upon by the unaffiliated user and the museum at the time permission to create a scan of the museum's specimen(s) was granted;
  2. The willingness of users to allow museums to take control of their media when no policy about re-use was in place at the time of uploading the media to MorphoSource; and
  3. The compliance of contributors with Contributor Terms of Use (certain failures by contributors may trigger transfer of their media to an active organizational-team, regardless of 1 and 2).

If the museum deems the posting of media to be in violation of its policies and it does not wish to, or is not able to to use MorphoSource for management, the museum can request that the media be removed or hidden from public view. Based on the Contributor Terms of Use, MorphoSource has the right to remove content when a museum can show that media were contributed without necessary approvals or in violation of policies that existed at the time the data were posted and which were clearly posted online or in another accessible location.