GET-IT: an open source, free software for Long Term ecological research

The Italian Network for Long Term Ecological Research (LTER-Italy), part of the European Network for Long Term Ecological Research (LTER-Europe), is a network of terrestrial, fresh water, transitional waters and marine sites on which researchers carry out decadal-scale ecological research. This network is composed by 83 research sites distributed throughout the national territory and managed by leading research institutions, universities and governmental agencies that deal with research and ecological monitoring in Italy. Since 2012, several IT facilities have been developed, in different research projects, to enable LTER-Italy site managers to register, manage and share ecological data collected on field and so let users access information produced by the network. This paper: (a) reviews the IT tools available to LTER Network and their issues, (b) analyzes and describes the free and open source software, GET-IT, (c) proposes a data management workflow by exploiting GET-IT, in order to share ecological data both inside the LTER Network and outside, towards others research networks.