title: The Genomic Standards Consortium.
abstract: A vast and rich body of information has grown up as a result of the world's enthusiasm for 'omics technologies. Finding ways to describe and make available this information that maximise its usefulness has become a major effort across the 'omics world. At the heart of this effort is the Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC), an open-membership organization that drives community-based standardization activities, Here we provide a short history of the GSC, provide an overview of its range of current activities, and make a call for the scientific community to join forces to improve the quality and quantity of contextual information about our public collections of genomes, metagenomes, and marker gene sequences.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. dfield@ceh.ac.uk
authors.forename: Dawn
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authors.lastname: Field
authors.forename: Linda
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authors.lastname: Amaral-Zettler
authors.forename: Guy
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authors.lastname: Cochrane
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Cole
authors.forename: Peter
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authors.lastname: Dawyndt
authors.forename: George M
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authors.lastname: Garrity
authors.forename: Jack
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authors.lastname: Gilbert
authors.forename: Frank Oliver
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authors.lastname: Glöckner
authors.forename: Lynette
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authors.lastname: Hirschman
authors.forename: Ilene
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authors.lastname: Karsch-Mizrachi
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
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authors.lastname: Klenk
authors.forename: Rob
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authors.lastname: Knight
authors.forename: Renzo
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authors.lastname: Kottmann
authors.forename: Nikos
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authors.lastname: Kyrpides
authors.forename: Folker
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authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Inigo
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authors.lastname: San Gil
authors.forename: Susanna-Assunta
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Sansone
authors.forename: Lynn M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Schriml
authors.forename: Peter
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authors.lastname: Sterk
authors.forename: Tatiana
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authors.lastname: Tatusova
authors.forename: David W
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authors.lastname: Ussery
authors.forename: Owen
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: John
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authors.lastname: Wooley
mesh_terms: D030541:Databases, Genetic; D023281:Genomics / Q000592:standards*; D007391:International Cooperation; D054892:Metagenome