Add ability to add multiple pieces of evidence to a given standard annotation

[vanaukenk]

@tmushayahama can we add this ability at the point of annotation creation as well as in the table to an existing annotation?
At the point of annotation creation, we could do this in a similar way to add another annotation extension or comment.

From @krchristie :

Considering that Noctua has allowed, even encouraged, adding a second piece of evidence to the same annotation for years, I think the best solution would be to add this functionality to the Standard Annotations editor as well. This would certainly produce the best work flow for annotators as it is quicker to add an additional piece of evidence to the same data that is already in the form than to have to reenter all of the information in order to add additional evidence.
#49

[thomaspd]

Standard annotations in GO have always had one piece of evidence. I think we need to follow that specification here, so we should not make this change. If the evidence is different, it should be a separate annotation.

[vanaukenk]

@thomaspd - Just to clarify:
This ticket isn't about changing the standard annotation specification, but rather allowing curators to add multiple pieces of evidence at the time of creating an annotation just to be more efficient. Each piece of evidence would still be modeled as a separate annotation as we always have.

[thomaspd]

Thanks for the clarification. If it's about making curation more efficient by not having to enter re-enter the same information, then maybe a more general (and less confusing) way to do that, would be to have two "Save" buttons: a "Save and clear form" and a "Save and retain entries". If a curator presses "Save and retain" then the form doesn't clear the form entries after saving, and then the curator can modify some of the previous data to make a new annotation. This way, it would also make it more efficient when adding more than one annotation from the same paper, as the evidence would be retained. What do you think?

[krchristie]

Thanks for the clarification. If it's about making curation more efficient by not having to enter re-enter the same information, then maybe a more general (and less confusing) way to do that, would be to have two "Save" buttons: a "Save and clear form" and a "Save and retain entries". If a curator presses "Save and retain" then the form doesn't clear the form entries after saving, and then the curator can modify some of the previous data to make a new annotation. This way, it would also make it more efficient when adding more than one annotation from the same paper, as the evidence would be retained. What do you think?

This type of thing could be helpful, but I think what I would really want would go beyond 1x1 editing via a "Save and retain" mechanism. While 1x1 editing via "Save and retain" would be sufficient to add an extra evidence code or two, there is another need that really needs to be addressed. Sometimes a paper has multiple annotations that are essentially identical, but differ by the gene, from a handful, to 10's of genes, and sometimes as many as a couple hundred genes. In cases like this, I would like a functionality that exists in Protein2GO (P2GO). P2GO allows a curator to select an annotation that is still in the editing area to be selected for duplication. The curator is then presented with a box to enter a gene ID or list of gene IDs to duplicate the annotation to. This is really a time saver.

[vanaukenk]

Thanks for the additional feedback @krchristie
I'll discuss with Tremayne the work involved in having the ability to apply a single annotation to multiple genes/gene products.