Single-access Key - Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages and Disadvantages

A large amount of knowledge about reliable and efficient identification procedures may be incorporated in good single-access keys. Characteristics that are reliable and convenient to observe most of the time and for most species (or taxa), and which further provide a well-balanced key (the leads splitting number of species evenly) will be preferred at the start of the key. However, in practice it is difficult to achieve this goal for all taxa in all conditions. If the information for a given identification step is not available, several potential leads must be followed and identification becomes increasingly difficult.

Although software exists that helps in skipping questions in a single-access key, the more general solution to this problem is the construction and use of multi-access keys, allowing a free choice of identification steps and are easily adaptable to different taxa (e.g., very small or very large) as well as different circumstances of identification (e. g., in the field or laboratory).