Guidelines for Submission of Images to PLANTS

We would very much appreciate your contributions of digital images or line drawings of U.S. plants to the PLANTS project. At this time, we can only accept batches that meet the following criteria:

• Batches of 100 images or more.
• Images must be accurately identified by scientific name.
• Batches must be accompanied with the necessary Metadata (see below ) so that they can be easily processed.

The images in PLANTS are free for scientific and educational uses provided that users properly credit the photographer, institution, and The PLANTS Database. If you contribute your images, you will be properly credited at the PLANTS Web site. Some of the images in PLANTS are copyrighted. We prefer that you relinquish copyright privileges for your submissions, since it simplifies matters for everyone. However, if you do retain copyrights, we will put potential commercial users in touch with you to negotiate permission through the email address that you provide in the image metadata. A simple cooperative agreement, reproduced below and here as a PDF document, governs your submission.

Cooperative agreement (48Kb)

Please check out the images now in PLANTS to see what we have and how your submission will contribute. Please email us at plants@plants.usda.gov at the National Plant Data Center (NPDC) for further information if you have a batch of over 100 images that you would like to contribute.

Quantity: Submitting groups of 100 or more images will let us capture economies of scales during processing. We are unable to process small, unsolicited sets emailed to us.

Quality: It's not easy to take great pictures of plants, so we've developed a checklist that may improve your image submission to PLANTS. Our primary recommendation is to please use a tripod.

Digital Camera Images: Please submit high-resolution photographs taken with a good quality digital camera. Ideally your submissions would conform to the following standards:

• Use at least a 4 megapixel digital camera.
• Images should be taken at the largest size and best quality settings that the camera is able to produce.
• The preferred file format is uncompressed TIFF, provided your camera is capable of producing TIFF files.
• If your camera produces only proprietary RAW files or JPEG, please carefully convert the RAW files to uncompressed TIFF for submission, or submit the best quality JPEG photos your camera can produce. Very good quality can be obtained in high-resolution JPEG files (6 megapixel or higher), however, a few guidelines for JPEGs should be followed:
• JPEG uses a compression scheme that degrades the image each time it’s saved. Do everything possible to avoid repeatedly saving the file before submission.
• If you edit, crop or enhance the JPEG photo in an image editor such as Photoshop, be sure to save the image at the highest quality possible. Try to do all of your work at one time to avoid repeatedly saving the file.
• Retain a copy of the original file from the digital camera in case you need to start the editing process over again.
• Crop and rotate the images as required.
• Provide image information as outlined in Metadata below.

Line Images: You can submit high-resolution line images for inclusion in the PLANTS Image Gallery. Our line image standards are:

• Provide the images in uncompressed TIFF format at the highest practical resolution.
• If the images are pen and ink drawings containing only black and white, scan the image as black and white (1 bit) TIFF images.
• If the images contain gray or color washes, scan the images as grayscale or color TIFF images as appropriate.
• Provide only line images that are in the public domain or drawings for which you hold the copyright.
• Crop and rotate the images as required.
• Provide image information as outlined in Metadata below.

Metadata: Supporting information about your images will ensure they are used to greatest advantage by the thousands of PLANTS users. We recognize that preparation of a database with the following information can be time consuming, but we would appreciate your efforts to provide as much of this information as possible. Some of it relates to the scientific value of the images, and some is necessary to ensure photographers receive proper credit for their work; all is important. However, we would rather have your images and a minimal set of these data than not have them at all! With that said, please develop a database or spreadsheet for your images that includes as many of the following fields as possible, where appropriate. An empty copy of our image database in Access or Excel format is available to help you build the metadata. Please use Access if possible.

Empty Image Gallery Microsoft Access Database Template (204Kb)
Empty Image Gallery Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Template (17Kb)

Upon making arrangements with the NPDC, digital images can be sent to shipping address provided. Please package the submission as securely as possible. We’re sorry we cannot assume any responsibility for lost or damaged images, but we will be happy to ensure traceable shipping by providing you with a FedEx # billed to the NPDC. Information about your submission (see Metadata above) and a Cooperative Agreement (see below) should accompany the images. A PDF format version of the Cooperative Agreement is also available.

Cooperative Agreement between the National Plant Data Center
and
__________________________________

This agreement is developed between the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, National Plant Data Center, (hereafter, NPDC) and ____________________________________________ (hereafter, the Contributor). The agreement covers the submission and use of slides, digital photos, or line drawings for inclusion into the PLANTS photo gallery of the PLANTS Web site.

Description of Submission:

The NPDC agrees:

To provide full credit to the photographer and his/her institution whenever the image is displayed in any way, and also to provide an indication of copyright if this applies. The NPDC reserves the right not to use or display any image.

The Contributor agrees:

To provide the NPDC with accurately identified images of plants from the United States of America, its territories, or protectorates that are supported by as much information as possible as outlined in Metadata above.

To grant the NPDC the right to modify and display images and make them freely available according to the PLANTS Conditions of Image and Data Use.