It may not seem so, but IDmyBee is a huge project. We need as much help as we can get.
Here is a couple of example of how you can contribute to IDmyBee:

• Tell us if you see a problem. If you identify a problem in one of the tools or in a page, please inform us through the contact form so that we can correct it. Such a huge project is bound to contain mistakes and typos, it would really help everyone to correct them.

 

• Cite IDmyBee in your studies. As mentioned earlier, academic recognition is minimal for such work. Academic recognition is required to obtain funding. You can therefore help us dedicate more time to improve this platform by simply acknowledging that IDmyBee is a scientific work and by citing the proper reference(s) when using an IDmyBee tool in your study (or any other taxonomic work). Such a practice is currently done for statistical bioinformatic packages like R, for example. There is no reason it should not be extended to taxonomic work.
  

 

• Help us find funding. If you want to become a sponsor of IDmyBee, or if you know of institutions or foundations who could become sponsor, please contact us. We need funding to get material and to hire people who can dedicate their time to develop IDmyBee faster.

 

• Share your pictures. One big problem in bee identification is the lack of knowledge or pictures of the different bee species. Contact us if you have picture of species or even identification criteria that are missing or in poor quality on the website.

 

• Share your bibliography. It is not always easy to access the taxonomic literature. We are working on developing a virtual taxonomic library about bees that could be accessed upon email request (we cannot directly store them online). Check the reference list to see if you possess a scan we are currently missing. Any step towards a more open bee taxonomy literature can greatly accelerate research.

 

• Translate IDmyBee and the identification keys. Europe contains many languages. Not everyone speaks english, and it would really help to have the content of IDmyBee and the identification tools (online and written) in as many languages as possible. So even if you do not know well bees, you could help us by working on translations of the website or of some in different languages.

 

• Digitize taxonomic texts. Automatic text extraction is not always efficient, especially on old books. You can help bee taxonomy by making text files of original descriptions that can be included in IDmyBee afterwards so that taxonomists and translators can more easily access them.

 

• Become an IDmyBee curator. You are a bee specialist? You know all about a group of bees? Help us make this project work by sharing your knowledge, your specimens or even your pictures while taking the lead of the taxonomic packages that can be cited.