	About the Species File Software
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This page covers the purpose, goals and features of Species File Software (SFS). Design specifications, versions and development plans, statistics about the quantity of data, and information about participating in work on the database are on separate pages.

Purpose

The purpose of Species File Software is to support persons who want to provide a source of taxonomic information for researchers and others working on particular taxonomic groups that are subject to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.

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Goals and objectives

The software was originally developed for use with the Orthoptera Species File Online (OSF) to provide a resource that makes taxonomic research on Orthoptera more efficient. This has been accomplished, but it requires continual maintenance to add results of new research, to fix errors, and to add new features. Work has been extended to serve other users, especially persons who want to identify specimens and to learn more about specific taxa. Goals designed primarily for OSF include:

Detailed nomenclatural information and extensive bibliographic references are required.
Information should be available over the Internet in user-friendly formats that can vary according to the requirements and interests of specific users. Users include both individuals using browsers and organizations that import data for large-scale data aggregation.
Participation by many members of the Orthopterists' Society is an important objective. This adds to the reputation and reliability of OSF. It requires that persons at remote locations be able to edit the database over the Internet with a user-friendly interface.
The database must be highly normalized to provide efficient execution and internally consistent data.
In the long run, the greatest cost for maintaining OSF will be data input and quality assurance. This justifies devoting significant resources to the development of software that makes data input as efficient as possible and does extensive quality checking of data as it is being entered.
The database encompasses nomenclature, images, sound recordings, keys, and specimen data. Integration of all these in a single database reduces the difficulty of keeping other components current with changes in taxon names and concepts. However, the scope does not include work better handled by software specifically designed for managing collections and observations.

Starting with the release of version 3.0 in February 2007, Species File Software provides support for databases and websites for multiple taxonomic groups.

The software will be offered free for scientific use.
Orthoptera is well suited as a test case for databases of this type. The group has a long history with many nomenclatural tangles and many evolutionary relationships still needing resolution. This provides a useful contrast with other test cases where the taxonomy is so well known that database development focuses on details beyond the reach of most taxonomic groups. Orthoptera is large enough that successful peformance will demonstrate the feasibility of large-scale implementation that will help raise less studied groups toward standards applied to well studied groups.
Where possible, SFS will utilize internationally recognized protocols and authority files.
SFS will provide convenient ways to make data available for data aggregators such as Species 2000, both via web services and via specialized export programs.

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Features

The following themes detail how the database software is designed as a rigorous taxonomic tool, using established database theory integrated with an intuitive user-friendly interface:

Integration of a broad range of components.

Flexibility for handling special issues.

Efficient data entry.

Rigorous built-in data screening.

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About the Species File Software

Purpose

Goals and objectives

Features