Zoological databases: step-by-step database creation based on Excel spreadsheets
Crimean Republican Sanitary-Epidemiological Station (Simferopol, Ukraine), Igor Evstafiev · Novitates Theriologicae · 2017
The current period of development of science is characterised by the widespread introduction of various systems of information accumulation and management into the research practice, which fully applies to zoological and environmental research. All this requires researchers to be able to systematise a variety of incoming information and conduct its in-depth comprehensive analysis. A simple and affordable tool for this task is MS Excel, which is part of the standard set of office programs. Excel allows to record unlimited information in spreadsheets, both in terms of volume and the number of different database factors. At the same time, Excel tools such as filters, summary tables, etc. allow to instantly extract any information from the database, group according to the necessary conditions, analyse and present in the form of summary tables or graphs, calculate data in the existing package of mathematical statistical analysis. The article shows step by step, with illustrations, how to create an electronic database based on any, numerical or semantic, measured or descriptive information available to the researcher. It demonstrates how to use multiple filters and how to create summary tables, depending on user queries. The paper shows how various data of field and laboratory research included in the corresponding electronic databases are used in the work of medical zoologists when conducting epizootological monitoring of natural zoonoses and when creating medical epizootological forecasts.