A Bioinformatics Reference Model: Towards a Framework for Developing and Organising Bioinformatic Resources

Abstract

Abstract. Life Science research faces the constant challenge of how to effectively handle an ever-growing body of bioinformatics software and online resources. The users and developers of bioinformatics resources have a diverse set of competing demands on how these resources need to be developed and organised. Unfortunately, there does not exist an adequate community-wide framework to integrate such competing demands. The problems that arise from this include unstructured standards development, the emergence of tools that do not meet specific needs of researchers, and often times a communications gap between those who use the tools and those who supply them. This paper presents an overview of the different functions and needs of bioinformatics stakeholders to determine what may be required in a community-wide framework. A Bioinformatics Reference Model is proposed as a basis for such a framework. The reference model outlines the functional relationship between research usage and technical aspects of bioinformatics resources. It separates important functions into multiple structured layers, clarifies how they relate to each other, and highlights the gaps that need to be addressed for progress towards a diverse, manageable, and sustainable body of resources. The relevance of this reference model to the bioscience research community, and its implications in progress for organising our bioinformatics resources, are discussed.

iBIRA – integrated bioinformatics information resource access

“…The i BIRA initiative is very basic and deals with the information services related to bioinformatics. A similar kind of proposition to the i BIRA has been given by Hiew and Bellgard (2007) towards developing a framework for developing and organizing bioinformatics information resources and later application of simple semantic web architecture and protocols (SSWAP) for resource discovery in bioinformatics (Nelson et al, 2010).…”

“…Bioinformatics information integration is concerned with taking care of the information need of the stakeholders in a situation where diverse natures of information resources are available (Helms et al, 2004;Miller, 2000). There are two iBIRA views on the information resources that led to origin of the product and utilization of products through these resources (Hiew and Bellgard, 2007). In the first view -the scientific views -the primary concern is the use of research and the resources are secondary; whereas in the second view -the technical views -the focus is on the necessity to provide resources to research process through a system so that the research process becomes easy.…”