Literature module

CRITTER’s development depends on the contributions of its members and the involvement of the scientific community. Data in the Literature Review Module are available to members, or scientists willing to become members.

Database contribution

To become a member, scientists contribute to the development of the database by providing functional trait data in one of 2 ways:

1. Contribute to the “literature review module”. The most common option is to “fill-in the blanks” where requestors document missing data by doing a thorough review of the literature and send us back the completed dataset. Otherwise, requestors can augment trait data on Canadian species which are not currently in the database.
2. Contribute a dataset to the “empirical module”. Datasets contributed to CRITTER in this way would be advertised on the CRITTER website, and we would route to you any request (see this link for how Empirical module works).

Data request

Interested parties are asked to submit the following:

1. Collaboration agreement proposal outlining the study rationale, its objectives, expected outputs and potential timeframe for contribution
2. List of species and traits requested
3. Outline a return data contribution

CRITTER’s Scientific Committee ensures data quality and standardization.