Scientific Contributions to the Tree of Life
The scientific content of the Tree of Life project is authored by professional scientists and science educators. If you are interested in contributing to the ToL scientific collection, see How Can You Contribute to the ToL? Before submitting materials to the ToL database, you should also have a look at the Tree of Life Use of Contributions page to find out about your options for licensing your intellectual property to the ToL project.
The following pages give access to ToL page building tools for scientific contributors, and they provide detailed instructions about the content of ToL pages as well as technical issues related to page construction. If you just want to cut to the chase, you can go straight to the Quickstart Tutorial and take it from there.
Page Building Tools for Scientific Contributors
Once you have read the instructions and are ready to build your pages, use these links to access the ToL page building tools, find out about the latest ToL development news, and participate in the planning of future developments.
- Scientific Contributors Log-In
- Scientific Materials Manager (log-in required)
- Publication Manager (log-in required)
- Browse the ToL Development Site (log-in or cookie required)
- Tools for Scientific Contributors: What's New?
Instructions for Scientific Contributors
If you are a new ToL scientific contributor, the following pages will provide you with detailed information on how to plan your contribution and how to create your pages using the ToL tree editor and page building tools.
Scientific Core Contributions: Branch & Leaf Pages
Branch and leaf pages constitute the structural core of the ToL content collection (see Structure of the Tree of Life). These pages provide brief synopses of the characteristics and phylogenetic relationships of different groups of organisms. Each branch and leaf page is authored by one or more experts for a given group.
Scientific Articles & Notes
The information provided on branch & leaf pages is supplemented with other scientific articles, providing in-depth discussions of a particular aspect of an organism's biology, and scientific notes, providing brief accounts of characteristics, commentaries, collections of media files (e.g., image or movie galleries), taxonomic or biogeographical information, or identification tools for a given group.
- Authoring Scientific Articles & Notes
- Planning Scientific Articles & Notes
- Creating Scientific Articles & Notes
Tips & Guidelines for ToL Page Authors
- General Guidelines
- Illustrations for ToL Pages
- Copyright Issues
- HTML for ToL Pages
- Scientific Contributors FAQ