Checking and Validating Your Wildlife Records

This 90-minute webinar introduces the Record Cleaner desktop tool and explains how to use it to check and improve the quality of biological records before submitting them to recording schemes or data repositories.

Record Cleaner is a free software application used in the UK to help biological recorders validate their wildlife observations by comparing them against known species distributions and identification rules. It provides an accessible way for anyone from casual recorders to experienced naturalists and data managers to review their data and resolve potential errors before they enter wider datasets.

Key features of Record Cleaner include:

• Automated data checking: The tool uses species-specific rules and distribution maps to flag records that appear unusual or outside known ranges.
• Verification support: By identifying potential misidentifications or improbable records, Record Cleaner helps recorders understand what verifiers look for and how to improve data reliability.
• Local rule-sets: Verifiers can install rule-sets tailored to particular taxonomic groups, ensuring checking is accurate and up to date.
• Feedback & editing: The software highlights issues in your dataset and provides guidance so you can correct or investigate them before submission.
• Preparation for submission: Cleaned and checked datasets can be exported in formats suitable for submission to national schemes, LERCs, iRecord and other platforms.

Whether you’re a biological recorder, an amateur naturalist, part of a recording scheme, a data manager, or working within a Local Environmental Record Centre, this session will equip you with the skills and confidence to use Record Cleaner to enhance the accuracy and usefulness of your biodiversity data.

The 90-minute event will consist of a 1-hour presentation followed by a Q&A with the tutor using questions provided by the live audience.

Biological Recording Specialist: Keiron Derek Brown

Keiron has been running the National Earthworm Recording Scheme since it was launched in 2014. He has been working as a biological recording professional since 2017 when he joined the Field Studies Council where he developed and then delivered the FSC BioLinks invertebrate recording project. Following the completion of this project, Keiron set up the Biological Recording Company to support the environmental sector through training and consultancy.

Skills For Ecology Webinars

Our Skills For Ecology webinars focus on technical skills useful in ecology and conservation roles, such as use of technology, field surveying and practical conservation skills.

This webinar is delivered by the Biological Recording Company in partnership with the Biological Records Centre (part of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology). We're able to deliver this webinar for free thanks to funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as part of the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme.