Annotation Guidelines Document

A Annotation Guidelines Document is a guidelines document that provides structured annotation guideline items and annotation instructions for data annotation tasks to ensure consistent annotation, annotation quality, and annotation consensus across an annotation project.

• AKA: Annotation Manual, Labeling Guidelines, Data Annotation Standard.
• Context:
  • It can typically define Annotation Task Parameters through annotation task descriptions and annotation objective explanations.
  • It can typically establish Annotation Rules for maintaining annotation consistency across annotation teams.
  • It can typically include Annotation Examples to illustrate proper annotation techniques for common and edge cases.
  • It can typically provide Annotation Edge Case Handling for resolving ambiguous annotation scenarios.
  • It can typically specify Annotation Quality Metrics for evaluating annotation performance and annotation reliability.
  • It can typically contain Annotation Class Definitions to standardize annotation category interpretation.
  • ...
  • It can often be referenced by Annotation Team Members as a annotation reference document during annotation task execution.
  • It can often support Annotation Training Processes and serve as a annotation reference resource for experienced annotation team members.
  • It can often incorporate Annotation Version Control to track annotation guideline evolution over time.
  • It can often include Annotation Feedback Mechanisms to improve annotation guideline clarity.
  • It can often define Annotation Tool Usage Instructions for proper annotation tool operation.
  • It can often be developed through annotation consensus processes among domain experts, annotation team members, and annotation task designers.
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Simple Annotation Guidelines Document to being a Comprehensive Annotation Guidelines Document, depending on its annotation task complexity.
  • Simple Annotation Guidelines Documents typically focus on straightforward annotation task definitions with minimal annotation rules and few annotation categorys.
  • Comprehensive Annotation Guidelines Documents incorporate multiple annotation class hierarchies, annotation edge cases, and annotation quality assurance protocols.
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Rigid Annotation Guidelines Document to being a Flexible Annotation Guidelines Document, depending on its annotation rule strictness.
  • Rigid Annotation Guidelines Documents enforce precise annotation rules with little room for annotator interpretation.
  • Flexible Annotation Guidelines Documents provide annotation principles that allow for annotator judgment in ambiguous annotation scenarios.
  • ...
  • It can have Annotation Format Specifications for ensuring annotation output consistency.
  • It can include Annotation Background Information to provide necessary domain knowledge for annotation team members.
  • It can contain Annotation Troubleshooting Sections for addressing common annotation problems.
  • It can be periodically reviewed through annotation guideline update processes to accommodate new annotation insights and annotation methodology improvements.
  • It can guide annotation edge case handling to ensure annotation consistency in difficult annotation scenarios.
  • ...
• Examples:
  • Annotation Guidelines Document Types, such as:
    • Text Annotation Guidelines Documents, such as:
      • Named Entity Recognition Annotation Guidelines Document for named entity annotation tasks.
      • Sentiment Analysis Annotation Guidelines Document for sentiment classification tasks.
      • Text Classification Annotation Guidelines Document for document categorization tasks.
      • Biomedical Text Annotation Guidelines Document for annotating biomedical text with biomedical entitys.
      • Legal Document Annotation Guidelines Document for annotating legal documents with legal entitys and legal relations.
    • Image Annotation Guidelines Documents, such as:
      • Object Detection Annotation Guidelines Document for bounding box annotation tasks.
      • Image Segmentation Annotation Guidelines Document for pixel-level annotation tasks.
      • Landmark Annotation Guidelines Document for keypoint annotation tasks.
      • ImageNet Annotation Guidelines Document for labeling image datasets with visual category labels.
    • Document Annotation Guidelines Documents, such as:
      • Form Field Annotation Guidelines Document for document field extraction tasks.
      • Document Structure Annotation Guidelines Document for document layout analysis tasks.
    • Audio Annotation Guidelines Documents, such as:
      • Speech Transcription Annotation Guidelines Document for speech-to-text annotation tasks.
      • Sound Event Classification Annotation Guidelines Document for audio event annotation tasks.
    • Video Annotation Guidelines Documents, such as:
      • Action Recognition Annotation Guidelines Document for human action annotation tasks.
      • Event Detection Annotation Guidelines Document for video event annotation tasks.
    • Software Code Annotation Guidelines Documents, such as:
      • Code Entity Annotation Guidelines Document for code structure annotation tasks.
      • Code Relation Annotation Guidelines Document for code dependency annotation tasks.
  • Annotation Guidelines Document Structures, such as:
    • Purpose-Driven Annotation Guidelines Document describing annotation project objectives.
    • Task-Specific Annotation Guidelines Document detailing annotation workflow sequences.
    • Quality-Focused Annotation Guidelines Document emphasizing annotation validation criteria.
  • Organization-Specific Annotation Guidelines Documents, such as:
    • Google Healthcare Text Annotation Guidelines Document for capturing structured medical knowledge representations.
    • CPROD1 Annotation Guidelines Document for CPROD1 annotation processes.
    • GM-RKB Annotation Guidelines Document for annotating wikitext with semantic relations.
  • ...
• Counter-Examples:
  • Annotation Tool Documentation, which focuses on annotation tool features rather than annotation guidelines for a specific annotation task.
  • Annotation Project Plan, which outlines annotation project scope and annotation timelines but lacks specific annotation instructions.
  • Annotation Quality Report, which evaluates annotation results rather than providing annotation guidelines for future work.
  • Annotation Training Manual, which focuses on annotation skill development rather than annotation standards for a specific annotation task.
  • Business Requirement Document, which outlines business objectives and functional requirements rather than annotation guidelines.
• See: Data Annotation Task, Annotation Quality Control Process, Annotation Consistency Metric, Data Labeling Workflow, Inter-Annotator Agreement, Annotation Scheme, Annotation Protocol, Timex2 Standard.

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References

2024

• (GPT-4 Guidelines Summary, 2024)⇒
  • Clarify the Task and Its Importance: Annotation tasks must be clearly explained, including the rationale behind the task and its significance to the overall project, to ensure annotators understand their objectives and the impact of their work.
  • Address Domain-Specific Knowledge and Edge Cases: Guidelines should cover domain-specific knowledge gaps and provide explicit instructions on handling edge cases, enabling annotators to effectively manage ambiguous or outlier scenarios.
  • Iterative Development and Pilot Annotations: The development of annotation guidelines should be an iterative process, starting with pilot annotations by domain-familiar annotators to identify ambiguities and disagreements early, leading to continuous refinement.
  • Consider Your Audience and Iterate Early: Understanding the annotators' background and expertise is crucial for tailoring the guidelines appropriately. Early iterations after initial annotations can refine definitions and improve clarity.
  • Include Real-World Examples and Problematic Cases: Providing real-world annotation examples, especially for problematic cases, aids annotators in comprehending complex tasks and making informed decisions.
  • Feedback and Open Communication: Regular feedback and maintaining open lines of communication are vital for resolving annotators' issues and questions, fostering continuous improvement of the guidelines.
  • Specificity and Objectivity: Strive for specificity and objectivity in the guidelines to reduce subjectivity and ensure consistent annotations across different annotators. Comprehensive lists of terms, categories, and examples are beneficial.

2009

• http://www.geneontology.org/GO.annotation.shtml
  • QUOTE: Annotation is the process of assigning GO terms to gene products. The annotation data in the GO database is contributed by members of the GO Consortium, and the Consortium is actively encouraging new groups to start contributing annotation. The GO annotation guide details more about the annotation process; other pages of interest may be the GO annotation conventions, the standard operating procedures used by some consortium members, and the GO annotation file format guide.

2006

• http://www.wheatgenome.org/content/download/794/8948/file/wheat_gene_annotation_Release1-1.pdf
  • Guidelines for Annotating Wheat Genomic Sequences: Release 1
  • Author: International Wheat Genome Sequencing
  • Consortium Annotation Working Group
  • June 2006
• http://wiki.dictybase.org/dictywiki/index.php/Pseudogene_Annotation_Guidelines

2005

• http://verbs.colorado.edu/~mpalmer/projects/ace/PBguidelines.pdf
• (Ferro et al., 2005) ⇒ Lisa Ferro, L. Gerber, Inderjeet Mani, B. Sundheim, and G. Wilson. (2005). “TIDES 2005 Standard for the Annotation of Temporal Expressions.]” Technical report, MITRE.
• (Saurí et al., 2005) ⇒ Roser Saurí, Jessica Littman, Bob Knippen, Robert Gaizauskas, Andrea Setzer, and James Pustejovsky. (2005). “TimeML Annotation Guidelines, version 1.2.1.” http://www.timeml.org/

2001

• (Ferro et al., 2001) ⇒ Lisa Ferro, Inderjeet Mani, Beth Sundheim, and George Wilson. (2001). “TIDES Temporal Annotation Guidelines - version 1.0.2.” Technical Report.

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