TaxonWorks

Describe life.

TaxonWorks is an integrated web-based workbench for taxonomists and biodiversity scientists.

It allows you to capture, organize, and enrich your data; share it with collaborators; and package it for analysis and publication.

A digital companion for discovering biodiversity

Our vision

From observation to archive, TaxonWorks is there at every step of the taxonomic process.

Capture your early observations, images and notes. Collaboratively refine, validate, and grow your datasets. Turn your discoveries into polished conclusions faster. Integrate data across your career, and hand it off to your protégé. Spend more time researching, and less time with the mundane.

For scientists and developers

We seek to surround TaxonWorks with scientists who can effect change in the tools they use, and software carpenters who can effect change in science through their contributions.

The TaxonWorks community is built around an open software ecosystem that facilitates participation at many levels, and expertise from scientists at every stage in their careers.

Rich, fluid, customizable data

TaxonWorks is part of your research data pipeline.

Flow data in via batch loaders, wrappers on external providers, scripts, the TaxonWorks JSON API, and an ever improving optimized user interface.

Adapt core data with many customizable annotations that optionally reference external standards.

Improve your data with a wealth of non-constraining validators.

Export an ever growing number of formats directly to your analysis tools, manuscript-ready documents, and global archives.

Long-term development support

Endowed and maintained by the Species File Group. Supported by the National Science Foundation. Created in collaboration with partner universities and labs.

Like life, TaxonWorks is ever-evolving

TaxonWorks has over 40 years of collective experience behind it. From experimental features to highly refined workflows, TaxonWorks aims to balance innovation and tradition. Lend your voice to a growing community of adopters and help TaxonWorks adapt.

Explore current & upcoming features

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Describe taxa, specimens, and anatomy

Use a wide range of metadata to describe life.
Status:
Upcoming
Available:
Now

Phylogenetic matrices

Create traditional qualitative or quantitative phylogenetic matrices. Annotate characters with notes, images, tags and confidence levels.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Free text notes and descriptions

Edit textual descriptions per topic for taxa. Cite, figure, and annotate them. Compare, clone, and copy from your own templates.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Biological relationships

Create and manage biological relationships between taxa or specimens or some combination of both. For example host-parasites.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Sequences

Manage curated DNA sequences. Annotate them with protocols, and other sequence related metadata (e.g. extract and specimen, primers, or query sequences).
Status:
Upcoming
Available:
Within the next three years

Anatomical reference systems

Create controlled vocabularies describing the morphology of your organisms, with tools to facilitate the transformation of these vocabularies into formal structures like OWL ontologies. Use these systems to annotate, query, and organize your data by anatomy.
Status:
Upcoming
Available:
Within the next three years

Manuscript and datasets export

Summarize data into taxonomic descriptions (e.g. nomenclatural history, descriptions, material examined sections) ready for publication. Export CSV, DWCA, Nexus, and many other data formats.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Within the next three years

Multi-entry keys

Use a multiple-entry key interface, with support for multiple languages, to analyze, build, and refine your observations.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Traditional diagnostic keys

Create dichotomous keys, particularly useful for keeping past keys at your fingertips with enhanced navigation.
Status:
Upcoming
Available:
Within the next three years

Advanced anatomical interfaces

Describe anatomical features using graphical interfaces. Drag, drop, and slide to measure, characterize, and qualify observations.
Status:
Upcoming
Available:
Within the next three years

Landmark metadata

Create landmark data and tie it to anatomical ontologies for future use and organziation.
Status:
Upcoming
Available:
Within the next three years

Specimens and collecting events

The best descriptions are those tied directly to specimens and collections. Capture these data at the personal or institutional level.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Digitization workflows

Capture detail for collecting events and specimens with features like customizable, fine grained attributes, lockable values, and varying levels of form complexity. Built in OCR and image processing.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Integrated GIS

Search and return specimen data spatially. Create georeferences of any shape. Also wraps GeoLocate.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Loan handling

Manage personal or institutional loans.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Nomenclature

Curate all levels of nomenclature with specific reference to the governing codes of nomenclature, plants and animals are covered. Rich coverage of nomenclatural rules are included to ensure adequate metadata are provided.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Catalog exports

Summarize nomenclatural data in print and machine readable formats.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
This year

DwC Checklist

Export basic nomenclature data as a Darwin Core Checklist.
Status:
Upcoming
Available:
This year

Catalog of Life

Export basic nomenclature data to the Catlog of Life format.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Validation

Use well over a hundred non-constraining validations to ensure data meet plant, animal, and bacterial codes of nomeclature.
Status:
Complete
Available:
This year

Import, annotate, and export

Handle data at all stages of the scientific pipeline. Batch load, annotated and refine, export via files or API.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Within the next three years

Darwin Core (DwC) occurrence import and export

Import and export DwC occurence data validating it along the way.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Cite everything

Tie *all* your data to references that you can import from BibTeX.
Status:
Complete
Available:
Now

Media and references

Load references, images, and other supporting documents. Link them as citations, depictions, or supporting data to all of the core data classes.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Data attributes, alternative value, notes

Add your own attributes that optionally reference external controlled vocabularies. Provide translations, abbreviations, misspellings for existing records.
Status:
Complete
Available:
Now

Rich support for collaborating developers

A open-source code base with a community that facilates new collaborators and a long-term development process.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
This year

JSON serving API

Work with the TaxonWorks back end through a token-based JSON serving API. Develop in your favourite framework, and integrate natively, or as a stand-alone tool.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Unit tests

TaxonWorks has hundreds of unit tests. Tests minimize the likelihood of new features breaking existing functionality. They clarify intent, and when included in new code make code acceptance straightforward.
Status:
In Progress
Available:
Now

Support

A growing group of developers supporting developers on Gitter, Github, and other channels.
Status:
Complete
Available:
Now

Get started with

This is the logo of TaxonWorks

TaxonWorks is an open-source web application. Each installation of TaxonWorks supports multiple projects and users.
If you have the means you can install it on your own, or you can look to collaborate with those hosting an instance.

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