Annotation of phenotypic diversity: decoupling data curation and ontology curation using Phenex.

dc.contributor.author

Balhoff, James P

dc.contributor.author

Dahdul, Wasila M

dc.contributor.author

Dececchi, T Alexander

dc.contributor.author

Lapp, Hilmar

dc.contributor.author

Mabee, Paula M

dc.contributor.author

Vision, Todd J

dc.date.accessioned

2023-02-07T20:33:14Z

dc.date.available

2023-02-07T20:33:14Z

dc.date.issued

2014-01

dc.date.updated

2023-02-07T20:33:13Z

dc.description.abstract

Background

Phenex (http://phenex.phenoscape.org/) is a desktop application for semantically annotating the phenotypic character matrix datasets common in evolutionary biology. Since its initial publication, we have added new features that address several major bottlenecks in the efficiency of the phenotype curation process: allowing curators during the data curation phase to provisionally request terms that are not yet available from a relevant ontology; supporting quality control against annotation guidelines to reduce later manual review and revision; and enabling the sharing of files for collaboration among curators.

Results

We decoupled data annotation from ontology development by creating an Ontology Request Broker (ORB) within Phenex. Curators can use the ORB to request a provisional term for use in data annotation; the provisional term can be automatically replaced with a permanent identifier once the term is added to an ontology. We added a set of annotation consistency checks to prevent common curation errors, reducing the need for later correction. We facilitated collaborative editing by improving the reliability of Phenex when used with online folder sharing services, via file change monitoring and continual autosave.

Conclusions

With the addition of these new features, and in particular the Ontology Request Broker, Phenex users have been able to focus more effectively on data annotation. Phenoscape curators using Phenex have reported a smoother annotation workflow, with much reduced interruptions from ontology maintenance and file management issues.
dc.identifier

190

dc.identifier.issn

2041-1480

dc.identifier.issn

2041-1480

dc.identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/26582

dc.language

eng

dc.publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

dc.relation.ispartof

Journal of biomedical semantics

dc.relation.isversionof

10.1186/2041-1480-5-45

dc.subject

Annotation

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Character matrix

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Curation

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Ontology

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Phenotypes

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Systematics

dc.title

Annotation of phenotypic diversity: decoupling data curation and ontology curation using Phenex.

dc.type

Journal article

duke.contributor.orcid

Lapp, Hilmar|0000-0001-9107-0714

pubs.begin-page

45

pubs.issue

1

pubs.organisational-group

Duke

pubs.organisational-group

Staff

pubs.publication-status

Published

pubs.volume

5

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