SamplEase: a simple application for collection and organization of biological specimen data in the field

Abstract Careful collection and organization of biological specimens and their associated data are at the core of field research (e.g., ecology, genetics). Fieldwork data are often collected by handwriting or unsystematically via an electronic device (e.g., laptop), a process that is time‐intensive, disorganized, and may lead to transcription errors, as data are copied to a more permanent repository. SamplEase is an iOS and Android application that is designed to ease the process of collecting biological specimen data in the field (data associated with biological samples, such as location, age, and sex). In addition to biological specimen data, SamplEase allows for the assignment of photographs to each collected sample, which provides visual records of each specimen in its environment. SamplEase outputs biological specimen data in a tabular format, facilitating subsequent analyses and dissemination. Despite the simplicity of SamplEase, no similar data management application is readily available for researchers.


| INTRODUC TI ON
All research requires data. Data are often collected unmethodically and unsystematically. It is often the case that only after the completion of the field season, is this data organized and transcribed to a format that can be more readily archived, analyzed, and shared (i.e., a spreadsheet). This two-step process of data collection is timeintensive (reducing the time spent collecting samples) and reduces data quality (via omissions, transcription errors, etc.).
The usability of any dataset is directly related to its organization and formatting and the scientific value of the dataset increases as it is used by different research groups. Collaboration and data sharing across research groups are hindered by the use of disparate data collection and organization schemes-thus, a unified systematic data collection approach could increase collaboration and data sharing. While many researchers developed software to address and serve various scientific objectives (see lists in http://brunalab.org/ apps/), none of these applications provide a simple solution to the collection of biological specimen data. The closest application to serve this purpose is EpiCollect (Aanensen, Huntley, Feil, al-Own, & Spratt, 2009). However, the complex application design and multiple features, although valued, may limit its wide-scale adoption and implementation across fields.
In designing SamplEase, we adopted the recommendations of Borer et al. concerning data formats, storage, and sharing potential as well as technical issues with naming files and categories of data (Borer, Seabloom, Jones, & Schildhauer, 2009). SamplEase is available in both Android and iOS platforms, designed to expedite collection, management, and sharing of biological specimen data in the field.

| SAMPLE A S E WORK FLOW
The general idea behind developing SamplEase is to (1) rapidly and conveniently collect and store biological specimen data along with photographs for each biological sample, (2) export the data in a | 10267 ALHADDAD AnD ALHAJERI standardized table, formatted for easy accessibility and to ease sharing, and (3) instantly backup/deposit the tabulated data along with associated photographs to the researcher's personal file backup service (e.g., Dropbox). The typical workflow of SamplEase appears in

| Search and download
SamplEase can be downloaded for free from either the App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android).

| Registration
Registration is required before SamplEase (Figure 2a) can be used to collect data. Registration also ensures that the standardized table outputted by SamplEase includes the collector's basic information (name, phone number, email, and affiliation [ Figure 2b]), which facilitates the sharing of biological samples. The user needs to register SamplEase only once, and after that, all collected data will include the collector's information.

| Data repository
SamplEase needs to be linked to a data repository-this repository is used to automatically store/backup the data outputted from each SamplEase session. We chose a popular online file backup service, Dropbox (dropbox.com), to serve as the data repository for SamplEase data ( Figure 2c). After the user links, his personal Dropbox account to SamplEase, a folder with the name "Apps" will appear in his Dropbox folder-SamplEase data (the table) and the associated photographs will be deposited in a subfolder entitled "SamplEase" (located inside the "Apps" folder). As in the aforementioned registration step (3), Steps one to four are conducted only once per session, while steps five to seven are conducted each time data are collected

| Session information
SamplEase allows for inputting session information (once per session), that is, then applied to all samples collected for this session.

| Sample information
After the user completes inputting session information, SamplEase prompts the user to input data related to each sample, which is entered sequentially using the sample addition screen (Figure 2f).
The first field in the sample information screen is (an automatically generated) sequential sample number (Figure 2g). Sample number is later concatenated with session information to generate a unique sample identification number, which is included in the output

| SamplEase output
After the completion of a sampling session, the data are uploaded to the linked Dropbox account as a compressed file (.zip), which is deposited in a folder with the path: "Dropbox/Apps/SamplEase." The .zip file is given a unique name based on the collection date and time, and the name of the sampling session, in the following format: "year-month-day-hour-minute-session name.zip" (or yyyymmddhh-  Table 1).
The names of the photographs follow the same scheme (see above), where each image is identified by the date, time, and session name, followed by the sample number, and finally the photograph number (e.g., the third photograph of the second sample in a particular session would have the following name: yyyymmdprovides easy access to the images, especially when many samples are collected in a sampling session, with many photographs taken for each sample. For a video walkthrough of a typical SamplEase work session, along with the associated output (.zip) file, see Videos S1 and S2 and Data S1.

| SAM PLE A SE LI M ITATI O N S
SamplEase has a number of limitations that are subject to future improvements: (a) the application is limited to one online file backup service (Dropbox) and (b) the photographs have a relatively large file size, which may quickly fill up the allocated cloud storage space.

| SAM PLE A SE AND C AMEL RE S E ARCH
As an illustration of the utility of SamplEase in biological research, we present an outline of our ongoing research on dromedary camels.
Our investigations focus on the molecular, biochemical, and morphological variations, which requires the collection of both biological samples and phenotypic data for each sample. SamplEase eased the process of collecting biological specimens (i.e., blood, saliva, tail-hair, milk etc.) of our sampled camels and their accompanying specimen data.
We have also used SamplEase images (Figure 3) to extract additional detailed morphological information and health status for each sampled camel. This information, along with the biological specimens, is intended for use in investigating the genetic basis of various morphological attributes. We are also experimenting with the use of SamplEase images to explore morphometric variation in camels (Figures 4 and 5).
F I G U R E 5 Lateral and dorsal views of camel heads. A 5 cm scale was placed on each image for morphometric analyses SamplEase is an improvement over commonly used methods of collecting biological samples and their associated biological specimen data information in the field, by allowing for systematic and rapid entry of descriptive and photographic data for each collected DNA sample. Moreover, the format in which the data are outputted from SamplEase is simple and organized, simplifying subsequent data archiving, sharing, and analysis. The automatic upload of biological specimen data to the linked Dropbox account mitigates information loss, and provides a convenient medium for data storage and sharing.
SamplEase' simple design makes it flexible, allowing it to be used by researchers from different fields.

ACK N OWLED G M ENTS
Jafar Aabdulredha and Bareq Alotaibi assisted in developing the application and made it available in the App Store and Google Play.
Huda Alaskar prepared the supplementary videos accompanying this manuscript.

CO N FLI C T O F I NTE R E S T
None declared.

AUTH O R ' S CO NTR I B UTI O N S
HA and BHA conceived and designed the application, and wrote the manuscript.

DATA ACCE SS I B I LIT Y
The application is available for free for iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play).