title: Finding and sharing: new approaches to registries of databases and services for the biomedical sciences.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: European Bioinformatics Institute, Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA. damian@ebi.ac.uk
authors.forename: Damian
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Smedley
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schofield
authors.forename: Chao-Kung
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Vassilis
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Aidinis
authors.forename: Chrysanthi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ainali
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bard
authors.forename: Rudi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Balling
authors.forename: Ewan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Birney
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blake
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bongcam-Rudloff
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Brookes
authors.forename: Gianni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cesareni
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chandras
authors.forename: Janan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Eppig
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Flicek
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gkoutos
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Greenaway
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gruenberger
authors.forename: Jean-Karim
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Hériché
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lyall
authors.forename: Ann-Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mallon
authors.forename: Dawn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Muddyman
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Reisinger
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ringwald
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schughart
authors.forename: Morris
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Swertz
authors.forename: Gudmundur A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Thorisson
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zouberakis
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hancock
mesh_terms: D001690:Biological Science Disciplines / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D033181:Information Dissemination; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D020407:Internet; D012042:Registries