Specify Workbench

Field collection

SCC recommends sending researchers out into the field with a spreadsheet that has a “Mapping Template” that matches spreadsheet columns to Specify database fields. Users can create Mapping Templates for any combination of data fields to be imported. The spreadsheet for data entry is referred to as a “Mapped Spreadsheet”. Mapped Spreadsheets can be created for research expeditions, focusing on data collection specific to that field trip. Researchers can easily use the spreadsheet in the field to record information about specimens, collecting event(s), locality, and more.

Data entered into a Mapped Spreadsheet can be imported via the Specify Workbench, a spreadsheet-based application. In this workflow, the user chooses the correct Mapping Template, the uploads the Mapped Spreadsheet to the Workbench. At this stage, the Workbench is completely external to the data catalog. The Workbench contains extensive matching and editing features that can be edited to fit user needs. The Workbench then performs Data Validation on spreadsheet contents before submitting the data for upload to the Data Catalog.

It allows the user to bring in bulk data, match columns to fields in Specify, and perform basic data integrity checks to ensure the data matches database requirements (data validity, controlled vocabulary matching, and linked record matching, such as Agent or Taxon records).

Users first validate the spreadsheet data within the Workbench, then upload the verified data to the database. Users may be assigned different levels of access to the Workbench functionality, such as permission to validate a dataset with the Workbench, or to perform the upload, so different people may verify that the data is sound.

Because Specify 7 is an online software, with internet access, a dataset may be created directly in the Specify Workbench from the field. This workflow allows researchers to verify data against database requirements upon entry.