Frequently asked questions

BF Workbench is the working interface of BOLD Forensics, a controlled environment for forensic DNA barcode records. Laboratories and agencies use it to register specimens, keep their evidence and sequence data together, and run the analyses used to identify species, mainly in wildlife compliance and enforcement work.

It is not a public catalogue. Records are visible only to the accounts given access to them.

Accounts are set up by the platform team. Email [email protected] with your name, your institution and the project or dataset you need to work in.

Each project and dataset has managers who decide who can see and change its records. Once you have an account, ask a manager of the project or dataset to add you to its access list at the level you need.

If you do not know who manages it, email [email protected] with the project or dataset code.

Only the accounts on that project's or dataset's access list. Access is set separately for each one, so you might manage one project, read another, and not see a third.

Projects have access levels from Project Manager and Edit All down to Read All and Read Specimens Only, including levels that give different rights over specimens and sequences. Datasets have Dataset Manager, Read All and Read Specimens Only.

Each record can carry the details that tie a sample to the physical evidence: the SAPS sample-seal reference, sealed-bag identifiers and their contents, the collection kit, the specimen tag, the collector and the method of delivery.

Custody documents, such as chain-of-custody records and evidence seal-break statements, are attached to the record as files. Every file is checked against its type and stored with a checksum taken at upload, and activity on each project is logged against the account responsible.

Each sequence is compared with a BOLD reference library using BLAST, in two passes: first at 96% identity for close matches, then at 80% to widen the search. The closest matches are returned with a taxonomic assignment and a confidence score.

The identification engine page explains the method in detail. You can also check a sequence with the public identification service.

Identification, distance summary, barcode gap, diagnostic characters, phylogenetic trees and sequence composition, plus exports of sequences and specimen data. Each runs on the records you select in a project or dataset and returns a report with tables, charts and files to download.

New methods can be added from the template analysis module and run within the platform.

The Barcode Core Data Model (BCDM), extended with fields for forensic handling and individualisation. A crosswalk to Darwin Core is maintained for exchange with biodiversity data systems such as GBIF.

Batch uploads are checked against controlled vocabularies, taxonomy and place names before any records are loaded.

Photographs (JPG, PNG, GIF); trace chromatograms (AB1, SCF) and fragment-analysis files (FSA); sequences and reads (FASTA, FASTQ); documents (PDF) and spreadsheets (XLSX); audio recordings (WAV, MP3); and data files (TSV, JSONL, Parquet and TAR archives).

Each file is checked against its type when it is uploaded, processed to produce previews, and stored with its checksum. The original is kept unaltered.