Imagine: You’re in charge of managing a collection of rare specimens at a natural history museum. From delicate butterflies to fossilized dinosaur bones, you have an impressive array of treasures to safeguard, preserve, and curate. But with great collections comes great responsibility and a need for an overview of your collection for visualization and reporting needs. That is where statistics come into play.
Statistics in Specify can help you keep track of your collections in a quantitative and systematic way. You can gather data on the number of specimens, their representation, location, and other relevant information, and use statistics to analyze and interpret this data. This allows you to make informed decisions about how to best manage your collections, allocate resources, and plan for the future. It is also useful as a snapshot for annual reporting or other reporting needs.
They offer valuable insights and essential information for analyzing and summarizing the database activity from the previous year. The data can be exported as TSV for visualization, trend analysis, and comparative analysis, allowing you to present findings and activity to your administration. These statistics help you track the progress of your digitization, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions based on the insights provided by Specify.
Interface
The Statistics page is made up of several sections, first the top level menu:
| Menu Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Refresh | Refreshes the current page of statistics. There is an indication to the left of this button showing when last the statistics page was updated |
| Download as TSV | Allows you to download all statistics on the current page into a tab-separated spreadsheet format |
| Edit | Activates edit mode where you can make changes to the statistics page |
The Categories area:
Categories are the main view for Statistics and are the hub for quickly accessing information about your collection’s statistics. Default statistics are grouped into several default categories for ease of viewing.
In edit mode, you can add, delete, or edit the category and statistic names.
The Pages menu is to the left:
Categories are organized into Pages. The Pages menu is used to navigate between Shared (the entire collection) and Private (user) statistics pages.
“Collection” and “Personal” are the default names for these pages respectively.
Access and Permissions
Shared vs Private
Private pages do not require special permission to be edited by a user. You can add as many pages, categories, and statistics as you want to this section.
The shared statistic page(s) can only be edited by users granted access in Security and Accounts.
To grant edit access for the shared statistics, add this role permission policy to the desired role:
Shared statistics edit access will be automatically enabled for users that are assigned roles with All policies enabled, and the Edit Shared checkbox selected.
For more information on Security & Accounts and user roles, see this guide.
Limited Access To Shared Statistics:
For users with limited access to the collection, some or all statistics on the shared page may appear as NO PERMISSION. This is because the statistic contains a query on a table that the user’s role doesn’t have access to.
Editing Statistics
Most changes to the statistics page are done in edit mode. Enable edit mode by clicking the Edit button in the top right of the page.
Cancel and Save buttons will then replace Edit on this display.
If at any point something is deleted unintentionally, clicking Cancel will revert all changes made while in the editing session.
Pages
Adding a page
This is done from the left side menu in edit mode. Click the 
by Shared or Private to add a page to that section.
Renaming & Deleting a page
To edit the name or delete a page, click the pencil icon while in edit mode.
This page editing dialog allows you to edit the name or delete the page with the Remove button.
Note: The Remove option will only appear in this dialog when there is more than one page.
Categories
Deleting a category
Delete the category by enabling edit mode and clicking Delete Category on the category you wish to remove.
Adding a category
Click on Add a Category to add a new category at the end of the current page.
Renaming a category
Enabling edit mode will also display category names as text fields. Editing these fields and saving will update the category name.
Statistics
Deleting statistics
Remove statistics by clicking the 
icon to the left of the statistic name field.
Renaming statistics
Enabling edit mode will also display statistic names as text fields. Editing these fields and saving will update the name of the statistic on the page.
Adding New Statistics
There are four ways of adding new statistics
- Choosing from the default statistics
- Adding a query from existing query builder queries
- Cloning a query statistic
- Creating a new query within the stats page
Choosing from default statistics and existing query builder queries:
-
Go to edit mode and click Add on the bottom left of the category to open the Choose Statistics dialog.
-
In the top half you will see all the existing query builder queries. Clicking a query builder query will add it as a statistic to the end of the current category.
-
In the bottom half of the dialog, you will see all the available default statistics. This is a list of all the default statistics which are not on the current page. Click on any of them to add them to the end of the current category.
Note: When a default statistic is removed from the page it will reappear in the Choose Statistics dialog.
Cloning any query statistic:
- Click on any query statistic. This will open the query built for that statistic. If you are on a shared page without edit access, then the Clone and Save buttons will be disabled.
- Clone replicates whatever query is currently on the screen to a new query with the same name and puts it at the end of the current category. Cloning will keep the original query unchanged, so you can modify the query to your liking before clicking Clone and it will create an exact copy without modifying the original query. (unless you save first).
- Save allows for modifying the query in place. If you modify a default query, it creates a custom statistic out of it, so the default query will appear back in the Choose Statistics dialog.
Both Clone and Save rerun the query when they are added, so you don’t have to Refresh.
Note: The statistics page will enforce a unique naming scheme by adding
(2)to the end of a name that is a duplicate on the page.
Creating a new query from within the stats page:
- Repeat previous instructions to go to the Choose Statistics dialog
- Click New at the bottom left to show the query tables.
- Select a table and it will create a new empty query. If you click on close here, it will take you back to Choose Statistics dialog.
- Add fields and click on Save. It will create a statistic and return you to the Categories view in edit mode. Note that you cannot create a query without fields added.
- Once returned to the main view. Your new statistic will appear under the respective category as “New Query”. You can now change the name by editing the text field.
- Click Save in the top right to confirm the addition.
Default Statistics
Your statistics page will load in with two pages of default statistics, a Collection and Personal page. While the default categories in these pages will be the same for each collection, the statistics within them are customized to your data! The Preparations category, for example, includes a statistic of the count of Collection Objects for each Prep Type used in your collection.
Shared Default Statistics
Your Collection page will load with 8 categories of statistics
- Holdings
- Preparations
- Loans
- Locality/Geography
- Type Specimens
- Digitization
- Attachments
Holdings
This category includes statistics for Collection Objects, Preparations, and Type Specimens.
Collection Objects: The count of total Collection Object records.
Preparations: The count of total Preparations based on a query with (formatted) and Count mapped.
Type Specimens: The count of Determination records where “Current” is true and Type Status is not empty. In other words, this is the count of Collection Objects that have been attributed a Type in the Determination form.
Preparations
This category includes a statistic for each Preparation type you have in your collection. Some common preparation types in collections include Tissue, Slide, Skeleton, and C&S.
Preparation statistics show the count of collection objects assigned the given Preparation based on a query with (formatted), Catalog Number, and Prep Type fields mapped.
Loans
This category includes statistics for Items on Loan, Open Loans, and Overdue Loans.
Items on Loan: Count of total loan items based on a query on the Loan Preparation table.
Open Loans: Count of open loan records based on a query on the Loan table where Closed is false.
Overdue Loans: Count of past due loans based on a query on the Loan table.
Locality/Geography
This category includes statistics for Localities, Geography Entries, Georeferenced Localites, and Percent Georeferenced.
Localities: Count of Locality records in your collection based on a query on the Locality table.
Geography Entries: Count of all ranks in your Geography tree.
Georeferenced Entries: Count of all locality records with coordinate information from a query on the Locality table.
Percent Georeferenced: Shows the percentage of locality records that have been Georeferenced in your collection. Not a query statistic.
Type Specimens
This category includes statistics for the count of the different Type Specimens you have in your collection. Some common Type Specimens used in collections include Holotype and Paratype.
Type Specimens: Count of Collection Objects where the given Type Status is assigned to a current Determination.
Digitization
This category includes statistics for Digitized Last 7 Days, Digitized Last Month, and Digitized Last Year.
Digitized Last 7 Days: Count of Collection Objects created in the past week.
Digitized Last Month: Count of Collection Objects created in the past month.
Digitized Last Year: Count of Collection Objects created in the past year.
Attachments
This category includes Collection Objects with attachments, Collection Objects with images, and Percent Imaged.
Collection Objects with attachments: Count of collection objects with an empty Attachment ID field.
Collection Objects with images: Count of collection objects where the attachment Mime type is image.
Percent Imaged: Percent of total Collection Objects with images attached to the record. This is not a query statistic and is based on mime type of attachments.
Private Default Statistics
The Personal page has just one private category to get you started, Curation.
Within the Curation category are statistics for Collection Objects Cataloged and Collection Objects Determined.
Collection Objects Cataloged: Count of collection objects where the agent for Cataloger is assigned to the specify user logged in.
Collection Objects Determined: Count of collection objects where the agent for Determiner is assigned to the specify user logged in.
Editing Default statistics
You can make any changes you like to the default query statistics and never lose the original default. Editing a default query statistic works the same as editing any other query statistic, except once saved, the original default will move to the choose statistics dialog for you to retrieve at any point.
- Click on a default query statistic
- Edit the query to your liking
- Click Save
Naming
Another aspect to note when making changes to default statistics is how naming of statistics works. While you do not need to change the name of a default once edited, the statistics page will enforce a unique naming scheme by adding (2) to the end of a name that is a duplicate on the page.
Deleting Default statistics
Default statistics can be removed from the page view by clicking the icon to the right of the statistic while in edit mode. It will be returned under the respective default header in the Choose Statistics dialog.
Note: Default statistic headers are removed from the selector dialog if they are all in use on the current page.
Advanced Customization
Examples
KU Fish Tissue Collection Statistics:
KU Fish Voucher Collection Statistics:
