Standardized term lists that can enhance interactions with biological databases
Tutorial and training materials by OpenHelix
| Controlled Vocabularies are standardized term lists, widely used in biological databases today. An understanding of the structure and usage of Controlled Vocabularies can improve researcher's database searches, and can assist biological programmers in standardizing many terms and analyses. Popular controlled vocabularies in biological science include Gene Ontology, MeSH, and the EC number system from the Enzyme Commission. The Open Biomedical Ontologies site provides access to many useful ontology collections for biologists and bioinformaticians, including species specific, anatomy and phenotype based ontologies. | |||||
You'll learn:
- the basic concepts of controlled vocabularies
- to explore some of the most widely-used vocabularies
- sites to examine additional vocabularies and resources employing them
- how controlled vocabularies may improve your searching
More about the resource:
The Gene Ontology is a consortium project to describe gene and gene product features in a standardized manner. It is extensively used in genomics databases. MeSH from the National Library of Medicine is a "controlled vocabulary thesaurus" widely used in biomedical databases. MeSH is used to categorize articles in the MEDLINE/PubMed database. EC Numbers are an enzyme classification strategy which have been used for decades to describe functional aspects and grouping of biochemical reactions. Standardized terms and shared definitions across databases improve interoperability of databases and improve users' search outcomes.
Click here for technical information on using OpenHelix tutorial and training materials
The materials and slides offered can not be resold or used for profit purposes. Reproduction, distribution and/or use is strictly limited to instructional purposes only and can not be used for for monetary gain or wide distribution.
Copyright 2009, OpenHelix, LLC.