When users submit data to OSDR, we don’t want the data to simply be deposited as a mess of Excel files, R code, and Prism files that some people can’t even open (especially if you have to beg NASA for software licenses, like us). We work with you to not only organize the data itself, but we also gather experiment information in the form of assay metadata, so that someone accessing your files will know under which parameters or conditions they were collected.
To do this, we work with you all to create assay configurations or “configs”, which are a list of experiment parameters created with input from ALSDA AWG members. The idea is that we gather as much information as possible about a particular assay as a way to not only ensure experiment and data reproducibility, but also to maximize reusability of your data in other analyses (or review papers or meta-analyses). It can also foster collaborations with other researchers, as is the case with many of our AWG members who are analyzing data and publishing papers together.
You can check out a current list of our assay metadata configs here. The templates in column D are what you would fill out when you submit your data files to us.
At the bottom are some configs that are “in progress”, which we would greatly appreciate your feedback on! If you are familiar with any of those assays, please feel free to take a look and let us know if there are parameters that we should add/edit/remove. There is a third tab titled ‘Config FAQs’ that explains what these are in more detail. We also like to hear from our community which assays they work on that aren’t on our list, so that we can get ahead of the curve and have them ready before you submit your data to us.
You’ll be hearing me talk about these a lot at upcoming AWG meetings, so please check out the list above and post any comments/suggestions/angry rants here for all of us to enjoy.