1. Background
  2. Data Collection Methods
  3. Data Quality Control
  4. Summary

Database count in the Nucleic Acids Research Molecular Biology Database Collection.

Objectives

With advances in computer technology and molecular biology, large quantities of biological data are being generated. To stimulate scientific discovery, sharing data through internet-accessible databases is a cornerstone of the research enterprise. The objective of this module is to provide an introduction to different types of internet-accessible biological databases and the quality assurance procedures that are used by selected databases.

  1. Data repositories (archives)
  2. Curated databases
  3. Data warehouses and integration tools - internet-based tools that integrate multiple databases and provide a single user interface for queries.
    1. Store different databases locally with regular updates and/or search online databases in a distributed fashion (without downloading and storing the data locally).
    2. Examples include:
      1. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Entrez server
      2. European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) - European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) server
    3. Warehouses rely upon the databases that they search for data quality control and thus, will not be covered here.