Frequently Asked Questions
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Video Tutorial
1. Registering an Account

An introduction to the BOLD Student Data Portal website. This video provides an overview of the system and describes how to register and create a course.
2. Submitting Data

This video follows the submission of a DNA barcode record from the specimen data all the way to the sequence. It focuses on the student interface, but it allows instructors to follow the steps students will need to undertake in order to create their records.
3. Overseeing a course

This video provides an overview of the tools available to instructors to monitor student work and participation. It also describes the steps needed in validating and approving student-generated data for publication on BOLD and GenBank.

If I am unsure about the identification of my specimen, is it better to leave the nomenclature incomplete or to guess?

If you are unsure, leave it blank! You should add as much taxonomic information to your specimen as you can, but only if you're sure it is correct. You can always add more taxonomic information later.

For example, if you know the class of a specimen, but not the order, then leave the order and all the remain taxonomy blank. You can use the Notes field to list any hypotheses you might have about your organism's name.

Once you have a sequence for your specimen, you can use the BOLD ID Engine to determine, or confirm, the identification of your specimen and add it to the record.

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