title: MatrixConverter: Facilitating construction of phenomic character matrices.
abstract: •
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  While numerous software packages enable scientists to evaluate molecular data and transform them for phylogenetic analyses, few such tools exist for phenomic data. We introduce MatrixConverter, a program that helps expedite and facilitate the transformation of raw phenomic character data into discrete character matrices that can be used in most evolutionary inference programs. •
  
  
  RESULTS
  MatrixConverter is an open source program written in Java; a platform-independent binary executable, as well as sample data sets and a user's manual, are available at https://github.com/gburleigh/MatrixConverter/tree/master/distribution. MatrixConverter has a simple, intuitive user interface that enables the user to immediately begin scoring phenomic characters. We demonstrate the performance of MatrixConverter on a phenomic data set from cycads. •
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  New technologies and software make it possible to obtain phenomic data from species across the tree of life, and MatrixConverter helps to transform these new data for evolutionary or ecological inference.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Florida, P.O. Box 118526, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA ; State Key Laboratory of Software Engineering, Computer School, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Florida, P.O. Box 118526, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA.
authors.forename: Lorena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Endara
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Florida, P.O. Box 118526, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA.
authors.forename: J Gordon
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Burleigh
keywords: MatrixConverter; morphology; phenomics; phylogenetic matrix; software