Finding and sharing: new approaches to registries of databases and services for the biomedical sciences.
The recent explosion of biological data and the concomitant proliferation of distributed databases make it challenging for biologists and bioinformaticians to discover the best data resources for their needs, and the most efficient way to access and use them. Despite a rapid acceleration in uptake of syntactic and semantic standards for interoperability, it is still difficult for users to find which databases support the standards and interfaces that they need. To solve these problems, several groups are developing registries of databases that capture key metadata describing the biological scope, utility, accessibility, ease-of-use and existence of web services allowing interoperability between resources. Here, we describe some of these initiatives including a novel formalism, the Database Description Framework, for describing database operations and functionality and encouraging good database practise. We expect such approaches will result in improved discovery, uptake and utilization of data resources. Database URL: http://www.casimir.org.uk/casimir_ddf.
Smedley
Damian
D
European Bioinformatics Institute, Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA. damian@ebi.ac.uk
Schofield
Paul
P
Chen
Chao-Kung
CK
Aidinis
Vassilis
V
Ainali
Chrysanthi
C
Bard
Jonathan
J
Balling
Rudi
R
Birney
Ewan
E
Blake
Andrew
A
Bongcam-Rudloff
Erik
E
Brookes
Anthony J
AJ
Cesareni
Gianni
G
Chandras
Christina
C
Eppig
Janan
J
Flicek
Paul
P
Gkoutos
Georgios
G
Greenaway
Simon
S
Gruenberger
Michael
M
Hériché
Jean-Karim
JK
Lyall
Andrew
A
Mallon
Ann-Marie
AM
Muddyman
Dawn
D
Reisinger
Florian
F
Ringwald
Martin
M
Rosenthal
Nadia
N
Schughart
Klaus
K
Swertz
Morris
M
Thorisson
Gudmundur A
GA
Zouberakis
Michael
M
Hancock
John M
JM
D001690:Biological Science Disciplines / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D033181:Information Dissemination; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D020407:Internet; D012042:Registries