Bugwoodwiki:Community Portal

From Bugwoodwiki

The purpose of the BugwoodWiki is to provide a source of reliable information for homeowners, scholars, industry professionals, and researchers. Despite the considerable merits of Wikipedia, it is unlikely that it will gain the full support of the academics and professionals due to its open nature. However, "wiki" technology does provide great promise in it's ability to centrally consolidate information, promote collaborative writing, and provide a channel of authoritative information for academics, extension personnel, and industry professionals as well as the general public.

By developing a specialist site we hope to develop a mechanism of appropriate peer review for all articles and to restrict contributors to qualified individuals. This will allow articles to achieve academic status for referencing purpose and ground the content solidly in the knowledge base of the discipline.

To make this resource as dynamic and useful to as many audiences as possible, BugwoodWiki provides tools to:

  • Allow collaboration on the creation of fact sheets and other information sources with accommodations made to make sure individuals are credited for their contribution
  • Provide easy, open access to the Bugwood Image Database System so the images and information can be used in the creation of Wiki articles
  • Provide easy portability of the Wiki articles to other formats including: other websites, publications, AgAlerts, and factsheets. Special emphasis is placed on maintaining proper citations for both images and the Wiki Articles

Who can edit BugwoodWiki?

BugwoodWiki Scholars are users who have been given permission to edit and create articles in this wiki. To qualify as a Scholar, you must have experience, education, or training specific to the articles you plan to edit.

Examples of individuals who qualify as BugwoodWiki Scholars include:

  • Graduate Students
  • Faculty and Staff of Educational Institutions
  • Industry Professionals
  • Plant Diagnosticians
  • Government Scientists

If you wish to become a BugwoodWiki Scholar so that you can contribute to wiki articles Use the following contact information:

You can also contact the Bugwood Network Staff or a BugwoodWiki Bureaucrat to receive permission to edit articles. You may also look at our current events to find a project leader in an area you are interested in. General requests to become a BugwoodWiki Scholar can be sent to the Bugwood Webmaster.

If you would like an training on how to use the wiki, you use the following information to request an online training session:

or you can try the Self-Help section on the wiki which has plenty of examples.

What constitutes authorship?

To edit articles in the BugwoodWiki, you must be a BugwoodWiki Scholar. Even then, the BugwoodWiki system 'does not' automatically assign authorship. We leave this upto the site contributors to assign on the various articles. If you make a significant contribution to an article, you should be listed as an author.

Examples of significant contributions include:

  • adding a section to article
  • improving a section of an article to be more complete

Examples of non-signficant contrubutions include:

  • correcting spelling and punctuation
  • minor revisions of grammar

This will be an evolving definition as this project develops. We believe most people have a basic understandig of ethics in science and there will be few (if any) disputes over authorship.

How do I become a BugwoodWiki Scholar?

BugwoodWiki Scholars are users who have been given permission to edit and create articles in this wiki. To qualify as a Scholar, you must have experience, education, or training specific to the articles you plan to edit.

Examples of individuals who qualify as BugwoodWiki Scholars include:

  • Graduate Students
  • Faculty and Staff of Educational Institutions
  • Industry Professionals
  • Plant Diagnosticians
  • Government Scientists

If you wish to become a BugwoodWiki Scholar so that you can contribute to wiki articles Use the following contact information:

You can also contact the Bugwood Network Staff or a BugwoodWiki Bureaucrat to receive permission to edit articles. You may also look at our current events to find a project leader in an area you are interested in. General requests to become a BugwoodWiki Scholar can be sent to the Bugwood Webmaster.

If you would like an training on how to use the wiki, you use the following information to request an online training session:

or you can try the Self-Help section on the wiki which has plenty of examples.

Standardizing the author line

The standard Author line (in WikiText) for BugwoodWiki articles is:

''Authors: [[User:USERNAME]], [[ORGANIZATION]]''

  • The double single quotes ('') at the begining and end will put the text in italics.
  • The USERNAME is whatever username you entered when you made your account. Using the [[User:USERNAME]] will link to your personal page on the BugwoodWiki.
  • [[ORGANIZATION]] will link to the page for your institution or company. From that page, visitors can find out a little bit of information on the organization access links to different departments and units.

Standardizing the article naming

A policy for naming articles in the BugwoodWiki has been developed. This standardization is important for several reasons:

  1. It allows other users to link to another article without having to look it up beforehand. If we are all using the same naming convention, there is no need to guess.
  2. It allows features such as {{states}} to work. This particular feature looks at the name of the article it is placed on, checks to see if there are other articles by that name that are written for a state or region, and provides links to those articles if they exist. You can see it in action on Rhizoctonia solani (belly rot). This allows for easy interlinking between article in different states and regions.


We have made up a set of articles to give an example of dealing with a organism that causes multiple disorders. The examples laid out here are meant to demonstrate the rules. Please feel free to give feedback to Joe LaForest

1. If an organism only causes one problem, it should be listed under the scientific name. All common names should have articles that redirect to the main article.
2. The scientific name should be used as the main name for the article when the organism is the only causal agent. The common name for the disease is placed in parentheses after the scientific name. If the common name for the disease is unique, it should have an article that redirects to the main article.
  • Add {{Otheruses2|SCIENTIFIC NAME}} to provide the standard link to the other articles.
3. When there are multiple articles for the same organism, there should be a disambiguation article created to sort out the names and articles. It is also recommended to create a general article to discuss the pathogen itself.
  • Add {{dab}} to the disambiguation article to provide the standard header
4. When an organism is part of a suite of species or a complex that causes a problem, the article should be named be the “approved name” for the disorder. This may lead to a future disambiguation article since the common name is not necessarily unique.
  • Add {{Otheruses2|COMMON NAME}} to provide the standard link to the other articles.
  • Add {{dab}} to the disambiguation article to provide the standard header
5. If the article is meant for the High Plains IPM Project, the name is proceeded by HPIPM: This places it in the High Plains Namespace which has authorship restricted to only High Plains Members
6. If the article is meant for a particular state, add /STATENAME after the article name. These article should be in the main Namespace (no HPIPM: prefix).

Funding Sources

This site has been funded by a wide range of organizations, grants, and projects. Below is a list:

  • Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program Grant No. 2010-85605-20541 from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture

How should I submit images

The BugwoodWiki is directly attached to the Bugwood Image Database System (BugwoodIDS). This provides convenient access to 82,000 high-quality, high-resolution images. Adding an image to the BugwoodWiki is done by either uploading it to BugwoodIDS or directly to the BugwoodWiki depending on what it is!!

Where do images I wish to upload belong?

Images such as logos, icons, personal pictures, or other miscellaneous additions can be uploaded directly through the wiki. BugwoodIDS is set up to organize high-resolution images related to educational topics. These miscellaneous images would not fit well into that system.

Images of subject matter should go to BugwoodIDS. This will allow you to use the image in BugwoodWiki and make sure the image is properly cited when it is used. It will also allow other people to use the image for educational projects, as long as the image is cited properly.

What type of images should be sent?

Images should be high resolution images (4 megapixel and up). Our major focus is on species of economic concern (i.e. pests and invasive species), but we also wish to have a wide selection of images about many aspects of forested, natural, agricultural, and urban systems. This includes images of plants, insects, wildlife, and plant diseases/fungi, as well as management and cultural practices. If it directly relates to an article that you are writing and better illustrates the subject matter, we can find a location for it in our system.

If possible we would like to know the scientific name of the subject in the picture or at least enough clues that we can track the information down. We also ask that you sort through your pictures and only send those that are in focus and of good quality (i.e. not over-exposed, of good composition, etc.)

How can I send you images?

Digital images can be directly sent through the on-line upload form (Upload Images) that can be used to send the images. If you would like to upload images, you will need to register for an account or log in with your existing account.

How can I send the information for the images?

There are several options for sending information for images.

  1. We have a Bugwood Data sheet. This is a pretty straight forward form that we can easily manipulate, compare to our system, and insert proper "codes" used in our fully-relational database. This form does require the filename to be entered so that we can keep the data with the proper image. Entering filenames can be done by hand or we have instructions on how to import these names into Excel using DOS commands.
  2. If the file name is sufficiently descriptive, we can use that to classify the image, although this is likely to not be as complete as the spreadsheet method. The information can be supplemented with additional data entered during the image review phase of our system.
  3. We can access the EXIF information associated with images and use those comments to enter the information to our system. This process is not yet automated and has not been widely used by our contributors.
  4. We can upload the images into our system and let the photographer enter all of the information through our image review system. If your images involve repetitive entries, it is not as efficient as using the excel spreadsheet. If you are only working with a few images at a time and they are cover different subjects, this is often a better option.

What happens after I send the images?

The Bugwood staff will review the images and add them to the system. You will then receive a notice to look at the information that was entered and verify that you approve of what was entered. After the images are reviewed, the corrections are made and the images are made publicly available.

The photographer retains all commercial rights to their pictures. We do ask that they allow the use of their images by non-profit organizations creating educational materials. Any commercial requests we receive are redirected to the photographer or handled as the photographer or image rights holder has instructed us (i.e. accept or refuse).

Give feedback

BugwoodWiki has a wonderful feature known as the discussion pages. These pages are attached to every article in the system. The discussion pages allow users to comment on an article and discuss what changes should be done to improve the article. This allows for full collaboration between any number of users and a running history of the article's development.

When making comments, use a header such as "=discussion topic=" to help organize the comments. It is also important to sign your entries on these pages by adding ~~~~ at the end of your comments. This will place your signature and time stamp on the comment to let the authors know when the comments were made. The signature look something like "LaForest 17:28, 17 December 2007 (EST)" and provides a way for the authors to either respond directly to you or follow the comments through the discussion.

You can also give general feedback about the site and its function by contacting the Bugwood Network Staff. We are always interested in your thoughts about how we can improve the site and other features you would like to see.

Use the resources

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Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health at the University of Georgia