Scratchpads: A solution for developing biodiversity websites and databases

Scratchpads (http://scratchpads.eu) is emerging as a powerful, user-friendly application that enables researchers to create, manage, share, and even publish biodiversity data online without needing to know coding languages such as html or website building applications like Dreamweaver or Frontpage. Scratchpad websites are built around a taxonomic classification either supplied by the users or imported from Encyclopedia of Life. Custom templates and modules are used to add content such as specimen data, locations, literature, and media either directly on the website or by uploading MS Excel templates. Because Scratchpads is based on Drupal (an open-source content management system), an active developer community is continuing to update existing modules and to add new ones, such as the matrix key module and the phylogeny module.