Creating a New iNaturalist Project Creating a New Project 1. Go to your Project Page by clicking on the Projects

You will see a list of any projects that you have joined, as well as other projects divided into categories such as Featured, Recently Active, and Recently Created. 2. Click on Start a new project.

This takes you to a New Project page, where you enter the information to create your project. 3. Type in project information. Fill in each field with the appropriate information about your project. The following pages will describe each piece of information in greater detail.

Creating a New iNaturalist Project New Project Title Use a simple and descriptive title. Note that this is the only required field when setting up your project.

Project Icon & Project Cover These images represent your project. Icons are squares and appear next to your Project Title in searches. Banners are a long and are displayed at the top of your Project Page. Get permission to use copyrighted images or school-related logos. We recommend having students collaborate to create these images for the project!

Description Descriptions clearly state the goals and objectives of the project and include specific guidelines, such as the organisms being studied, the geographic boundaries and the timeline (is it ongoing, for a semester, for an academic year, etc.).

Terms Terms are rules that contributors must agree to before joining the project. They explain how observations will be used and who can submit them. Terms are not rules (see below).

Project Type Project type defines the style of your project. The five options are: Normal: Displays members of the project, but does not rank them in any way. This is a good default option. Contest: Displays members of the project and ranks them by the number of unique species they contribute. Observations Contest: Displays members of the project and ranks them by the number of observations they contribute. Assessment: Allows members to add habitat assessments to the project, this is a text box where users describe the habitat and state why they believe it is healthy or not. Bioblitz: This sets up your project as a timed event, where members contribute as many observations as possible within a specified time frame.

Creating a New iNaturalist Project Show Total Listed Taxa This option generates a list of potential organisms that members might observe, and compares it to how many have been actually observed. For example, you may have 100 observations contributed to your project, but they may only represent 12 taxa out of the 50 known to that area. This information can inspire members to seek out new species to observe. This information is displayed on the Checklist section on your Project Page.

Location Location allows others to find your project, and shows the geographical area of research, such as your campus, park, neighborhood or city.

Latitude and Longitude To indicate your study area, type the name or address of your project into the Search the Map field and hit enter or click search. A ‘pin’ will appear at that location on the map, and the Latitude and Longitude will automatically be updated for that location. To change these results, do a new search or click and drag the pin on the map.

Map Type Choose the map style shown on your Project Page from the drop down menu: road map, terrain, satellite, and hybrid. Click the options on the top right of the map to see what these look like. Note that people may change they map type to their preference when viewing the Project Page.

Zoom Level Choose the level of zoom on the map shown on your project page by using the scale on the left side of the map, or by entering a value between 0 (zoomed out) to 20 (zoomed in) in the Zoom level field. Note that people may change the zoom to their preference when viewing the Project Page.

iNaturalist.org place Projects may research a specific area or place. Areas of study may be as large as a continent, or as small as a schoolyard. iNaturalist has a number of pre-designated areas, such continents, countries, counties, cities, some parks and natural features. To set your project’s place, type in a search parameter in the field and select an area if you see one that fits your needs. If you do not see one, go to the next section. Hint: Before creating a new place, try searching with a couple different search terms!

Creating a New iNaturalist Project Not finding the place you want? To add a place to iNaturalist, click Create a new place. Hint: open this page in a new browser window or tab to make it easier to return to creating your project when finished! 1. Name your place. Choose a clear, specific name. 2. Identify a parent location. This is the broader location your place is located, such as a state, county, or city, and will connect your new location within iNat Places. 3. Find your place on the map. Use the zoom bar on the map to navigate to the area you want to create as boundary around, i.e. your place. You can also try searching for your place on the Import from Yahoo tab, or if you have a KML (Keyhole Markup Language) file you may choose to upload place/location information this way.

3

1 2

5 6 7

4. Outline your place. Click on the draw a polygon icon, (the mouse arrow will turn into an ‘x’). Use this to place points that connect by a line to outline an area on the map. You can drop as many points as you need to shape the boundary, the polygon does not complete until you click back on the first point you dropped. This automatically fills in your Lat/Long information.

5. Choose the Place type from the dropdown menu that you think best describes your area. There are nearly 50 choices, Point of Interest or Open Space are good options for a schools.

6. Decide if you want check lists allowed. Check lists enable users to see and create a list of organisms based on observations made in your place (see Total Listed Taxa for more). Check the box to allow this. 7. Save your place. Click the blue Save place button, and go back to your project page. Your place can now be selected from the iNaturalist place field!

Show place on boundary on map Check this to show your project’s area on your project page.

Creating a New iNaturalist Project Observation Rules Rules are standards for data that you set, and iNaturalist enforces when users submit an observation. If an observation conflicts with a rule, it is not added and the user receives a message explaining why the observation cannot be contributed. To add a rule 1. Click Add a new rule. 2. Choose the type of rule you want to add from the drop down menu. There are five rules to choose from: Observed in place: Observations must be from a designated place. This rule will ask you for place information. If you have not already defined your place, see the previous page. Georeferenced: Observations must have a latitude and longitude associated with them. Identified: Observations must have an identification. In taxon: Observations must be of a specific type of organism. This can be broad, such as ‘birds’ or specific such as ‘crows’. On list: Restricts observations to a specified list of taxa. (generated by members of the project, or by the project administrator). You may have as many as one of each kind of rule. Note that rules can only be added after a project has been saved, and to add multiple rules you will need to save multiple times. Scroll to the bottom and click the blue Create button to save a project initially. Then, on the Project Page, click Edit project to come back and add or remove a rule.

Tracking Codes You do not need to fill out this section.

Creating a New iNaturalist Project Observation Fields If information you want is not built into iNaturalist, you can add fields for people to fill out when submitting observations. For example, if your classroom was looking at what birds eat on your campus, you can add a field asking the person to list what the bird was seen eating. To add a field: 1. Click the down arrow next to the Add a field box. This will drop down a list of fields people have already added and may fill your needs.

2. Select an option if it is what you want. Click Add a field to add it to your project. Note, that you can add multiple fields this way.

3. Check the box that appears to make it a required field.

4. If you do not see the field you want, click Create a new field

5. Enter in the information you want from observers in the fields that pop-up, and save.

Create your project! Now you are ready to publish your project. Click the blue Create button and your project will now be live! If you made mistakes or need to tweak your project as you go, you can make edits to your project after you have published it by clicking Edit project on the Project Page.