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. 2020 Sep 4:9:ELIXIR-1094.
doi: 10.12688/f1000research.25413.2. eCollection 2020.

Biocuration - mapping resources and needs

Alexandra Holinski  1 , Melissa L Burke  1 , Sarah L Morgan  1 , Peter McQuilton  2 , Patricia M Palagi  3
Affiliations

Biocuration - mapping resources and needs

Alexandra Holinski et al. F1000Res. .

Abstract

Background: Biocuration involves a variety of teams and individuals across the globe. However, they may not self-identify as biocurators, as they may be unaware of biocuration as a career path or because biocuration is only part of their role. The lack of a clear, up-to-date profile of biocuration creates challenges for organisations like ELIXIR, the ISB and GOBLET to systematically support biocurators and for biocurators themselves to develop their own careers. Therefore, the ELIXIR Training Platform launched an Implementation Study in order to i) identify communities of biocurators, ii) map the type of curation work being done, iii) assess biocuration training, and iv) draw a picture of biocuration career development. Methods: To achieve the goals of the study, we carried out a global survey on the nature of biocuration work, the tools and resources that are used, training that has been received and additional training needs. To examine these topics in more detail we ran workshop-based discussions at ISB Biocuration Conference 2019 and the ELIXIR All Hands Meeting 2019. We also had guided conversations with selected people from the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute. Results: The study illustrates that biocurators have diverse job titles, are highly skilled, perform a variety of activities and use a wide range of tools and resources. The study emphasises the need for training in programming and coding skills, but also highlights the difficulties curators face in terms of career development and community building. Conclusion: Biocurators themselves, as well as organisations like ELIXIR, GOBLET and ISB must work together towards structural change to overcome these difficulties. In this article we discuss recommendations to ensure that biocuration as a role is visible and valued, thereby helping biocurators to proceed with their career.

Keywords: Biocuration; Biocuration tools; Bioinformatics; Career development; Life Sciences; Training needs.

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Conflict of interest statement

No competing interests were disclosed.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Countries in which biocurators work.
The map represents the countries in which those biocurators who responded to the survey work. The colour shading in the map indicates the number of respondents from each country.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. The variety of life science domains that biocurators belong to.
The size of the text in the word cloud is related to how often particular life science domains were mentioned by respondents. The colours were chosen to create a better contrast between the words.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Job titles provided by respondents of the global survey.
The figure shows all responses ( A) and responses filtered by respondents from EMBL-EBI ( B). The size of the text in the word cloud is related to how often particular job titles were mentioned by respondents. The colours were chosen to create a better contrast between the words.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. The type of training survey respondents had access to.
Respondents could choose several answers. This question was answered by 44 respondents. The percentage of respondents who chose the respective training type is also indicated in the figure.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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