Annotation Guidelines Document

An Annotation Guidelines Document is a guidelines document with annotation guideline items for data annotation task.

Context:
- It can (often) be referenced by Document Annotators (within a annotation team for a annotation project).
- It can (often) support Annotator Training and as a reference for experienced annotators to ensure consistent application of annotation standards.
- ...
- It can range from being ... in complexity and detail, depending on the nature of the annotation task, from simple tagging tasks to complex Natural Language Understanding tasks.
- ...
- It can be periodically reviewed and updated to accommodate new insights, changes in the domain, or improvements in annotation methodologies.
- It can specify the Annotation Scheme or Annotation Protocol to ensure consistency and quality in annotations.
- It can include definitions of Annotation Categories, Tagging Rules, and examples of correct and incorrect annotations.
- It can guide how to handle ambiguous cases or edge cases in the annotation process.
- It can be developed through consensus among domain experts, annotators, and task designers to reflect best practices and task-specific requirements.
- It can be periodically reviewed and updated to accommodate new insights, changes in the domain, or improvements in annotation methodologies.
- ...
Example(s):
- Text Annotation Guidelines:
  - CPROD1 Annotation Guidelines for CPROD1.
  - GM-RKB Annotation Guidelines Document for annotating wikitext.
  - Biomedical Text Annotation Guidelines for annotating medical texts with entities like diseases, treatments, and symptoms.
  - Legal Document Annotation Guidelines for annotating legal documents with relevant legal entities and legal relations.
  - ...
- Image Annotation Guidelines:
  - ImageNet Annotation Guidelines for labeling images in the ImageNet dataset.
  - ...
- Video Annotation Guidelines:
  - Guidelines for annotating videos in tasks such as action recognition or event detection.
- Audio Annotation Guidelines:
  - Guidelines for tasks like speech transcription or sound event classification.
- Software Code Annotation Guidelines:
  - Software Code Annotation Guidelines with relevant code entities and code relations.
- ...

Example(s):

- Text Annotation Guidelines:
  - CPROD1 Annotation Guidelines for CPROD1.
  - GM-RKB Annotation Guidelines Document for annotating wikitext.
  - Biomedical Text Annotation Guidelines for annotating medical texts with entities like diseases, treatments, and symptoms.
  - Legal Document Annotation Guidelines for annotating legal documents with relevant legal entities and legal relations.
  - Google's Healthcare Text Annotation Guidelines for capturing structured representations of medical knowledge in text data.
- Image Annotation Guidelines:
  - ImageNet Annotation Guidelines for labeling images in the ImageNet dataset.
- Video Annotation Guidelines:
  - Guidelines for annotating videos in tasks such as action recognition or event detection.
- Audio Annotation Guidelines:
  - Guidelines for tasks like speech transcription or sound event classification.
- Software Code Annotation Guidelines:
  - Guidelines for annotating software code with relevant code entities and code relations.
- ...

Helpful Resources and Best Practices:

- Eugene Yan's Guide on How to Write Data Labeling/Annotation Guidelines, which provides insights on the importance of clear definitions, examples, and addressing user needs in annotation guidelines.
- V7 Labs' Best Practices for Annotation Guidelines, outlining key practices for effective guidelines, such as addressing domain-specific knowledge gaps and identifying edge cases.
- Labellerr's Ultimate Guide to Text Annotation, discussing the different stages of the text annotation process and emphasizing the importance of detailed guidelines.
- Snorkel AI's Annotation Guidelines, focusing on the iterative process of refining guidelines to address ambiguous data points effectively.
- ...
Counter-Example(s):
- Annotation Training Manuals.
- Annotation Quality Control Procedures.
- a Reference Book, such as: ___.
- a Business Requirement Document, which outlines the requirements for a business initiative rather than guidelines for an annotation task.
See: Document, Standard, Timex2, Annotation Quality, Inter-Annotator Agreement.

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.

Annotation Guidelines Document

References

2024

2009

2006

2005

2001

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