VegBank Certification Explanation
The ESA Vegetation Panel will provide a certification program for VegBank users. Certification is needed for at least two reasons.
1. The quality a user attaches to a plot observation in the archive is likely to vary with his or her perception of the workers who collected and submitted the data. In addition, users need a way to evaluate the credentials of an individual who has contributed an annotation (note) or interpretation (identification of a plot observation to community type, or a plant observation to species/taxon). One function of certification is to provide the user with a means of evaluating the ability of an unknown worker.
2. The quality of a plot in the archive will increase as additional information is added and interpretations are made. Not all users are qualified to add information to plot records, nor will all users understand the database and it uses well enough to know how best to add value to plot records. Certain types of annotation or interpretation will require user certification.
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here to see help on the levels of certification.