What is DISQUS?
To maximize the impact of the plant taxonomic community and potentially engage the larger plants
community in the core scientific work of plant identification and scientific data correction, as well as
making a more efficient and predictable data correction process, we at JSTOR Plant Science decided that
we needed a commenting system. This commenting system allows the community to review the objects
contributed by the Global Plants Initiative (GPI) and add feedback. For this commenting system, we
chose DISQUS.
DISQUS is a commenting system that allows anyone to offer feedback, suggestions, or even corrections
directly on the metadata page for each and every object on the site. DISQUS allows any person who
visits JSTOR Plant Science to leave comments on the material the Global Plants Initiative community
have contributed. If you go to any object on JSTOR Plant Science, you will see the DISQUS commenting
tool below the metadata (see http://plants.jstor.org/specimen/hal0082172). The commenting tool looks
like this.
Anyone can enter a comment, add an image, like the object, or even subscribe to the comments of that
object by email or by RSS. Once someone submits a comment, it is then routed to the GPI institution that
contributed this material.
What does a DISQUS comment email look like?
Every email you receive from JSTOR Plant Science containing DISQUS comments will contain identical
information. If you receive multiple comments on your contributed material, these comments will be folded
into a digest email with up to 10 comments per email. In every email, you will always see the following:
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Contributor (in this case, Juha Kinnunen)
Object (hyperlinked, in this case Type? Of Aegiphila multiflora Ruiz & Pav. [family LABITAE])
Message
Update Metadata (this button will take you directly to this object in Xumba, where you can update
the metadata record if the feedback is valid)
Reply To Comment (this button will take you directly to the comments for this object on JSTOR
Plant Science if you want to respond to the person who contributed them)
Contact Plants Support (this button will allow you to contact JSTOR Plants Support with any
questions.
Please see the following image as an example:
What should I do with this information?
With DISQUS, we want to give the taxonomic community the means to comment on each other’s data
and the means to update that data if the comments are scientifically valid. Each GPI institution can
choose to the update the metadata if it is valid or ignore the comment if it is deemed invalid. This scientific
decision remains under the control of the GPI institution who contributed the material.
However, we do encourage you to Reply to the Comment to mention why you did or didn’t elect to act on
the comment. This encourages contributors to keep contributing and creates dialogue throughout the
community. This has and will always be one of the prime goals of this DISQUS commenting system.
What are my responsibilities as a GPI member?
Aside from reviewing the comments and changing the metadata as needed, it is critical that every GPI
institution keeps us informed of any staff changes, especially staff dedicated to Xumba, so that these
might be reflected in our commenting system. Without timely updates of this nature, it is possible that
precious feedback could be sent to email addresses that no longer exist. Please email plants@jstor.org
with any changes as soon as you learn of them.
What is the goal for the future of this project?
Our goal is to continually develop this commenting system to ensure that it stimulates taxonomic work
and data correction, yet remains easy to use. We want to avoid redundancy in terms of correcting data,
increase the exposure of your scientific content to the larger community, and allow for interaction with the
site.
We are also developing onsite data correction, whereby an authorized GPI representative is able to
correct metadata based on comments received through DISQUS directly on the metadata page for the
object itself. We are also hoping to allow GPI representatives to add additional fields to the existing record
as they so desire. Building on this idea of easy and efficient updating mechanisms, we are working on
developing an easy and predictable means of data export so that data changes made on JSTOR Plant
Science can be reflected on other sites and databases almost immediately.
What if I have questions?
With any questions, please contact plants@jstor.org and we would be happy to help. We can answer your
questions via email or even conduct a short online training session to bring you up to speed on DISQUS
and how it fits in with JSTOR Plant Science.