Biocuration - mapping resources and needs

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.

APICURON: a database to credit and acknowledge the work of biocurators

“…Despite its importance, the contribution and effort of biocurators are extremely difficult to attribute and quantify ( 5 ). This is relevant for all categories of curators irrespective of them being professional curators, volunteer curators or just experts that occasionally provide feedback on existing annotation records.…”

“…This is relevant for all categories of curators irrespective of them being professional curators, volunteer curators or just experts that occasionally provide feedback on existing annotation records. The European life science infrastructure for biological information (ELIXIR, https://elixir-europe.org/ ), the International Society for Biocuration (ISB, https://www.biocuration.org ) ( 6 ) and the Global Organization for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training (GOBLET, https://www.mygoblet.org ) ( 7 , 8 ) recognized the need to ensure that the role of biocurator is visible and valued ( 5 ). According to a global survey, they found that biocurators have diverse job titles, are highly skilled, perform a variety of activities and use a wide range of tools and resources.…”

APICURON: a database to credit and acknowledge the work of biocurators

“…According to a global survey they found that biocurators have diverse job titles, are highly skilled, perform a variety of activities and use a wide range of tools and resources. But the majority of biocurators are unaware of this as a career, or simply think that biocuration is not the main aspect of their job (5) . An established strategy for crediting curators is to offer co-authorship in the article describing the corresponding curated database.…”

“…Even though in principle expert curation scales well with the growth of scientific literature, it is highly demanding, requiring the allocation of dedicated resources and time (3,4). Despite its importance, the contribution and effort of biocurators is extremely difficult to acknowledge and quantify (5). This is relevant for all categories of curators irrespective of they being professional curators, volunteer curators or just experts which occasionally provides feedback on existing annotation records.…”

“…This is relevant for all categories of curators irrespective of they being professional curators, volunteer curators or just experts which occasionally provides feedback on existing annotation records. The European life science infrastructure for biological information (ELIXIR, https://elixir-europe.org/), the International Society for Biocuration (ISB, https://www.biocuration.org) (6) and the Global Organization for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training (GOBLET, https://www.mygoblet.org) (7,8) recognized the need to ensure that the role of biocurator is visible and valued (5). According to a global survey they found that biocurators have diverse job titles, are highly skilled, perform a variety of activities and use a wide range of tools and resources.…”