Data Descriptions for The Zebrafish Database (ZDB)

SECTION I: The Zebrafish Community

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Purpose:

The purpose of the data classes described in this section is to establish a searchable directory of the zebrafish research community and their publications. It should provide community members with ways of finding out who their colleagues are, where they are currently working, what work they are doing and have done in the past, and how to contact them. For example, having just read a journal paper, a researcher might use the database to find other papers that author has published or to locate and contact one of the authors to ask questions, request materials, etc.

From the standpoint of the database project, a main goal of maintaining this information is to support the EXPERIMENTAL DATA (see Section II) contained in the database more robustly. For example, when a researcher submits information about a new gene or mutant to the database, it is much more useful (and secure) to tag the new data item with a pointer to the submitter’s record in the PERSON catalog, rather than merely tagging it with the submitter’s name. That way a researcher later viewing the gene or mutant could follow up by asking the database for the submitter’s current contact information, subsequent publications, etc.

To support these activities, two primary types of data are maintained:

1) Data about people or places. The generic SOURCE class and its subclasses, PERSON, LAB, and COMPANY, catalog all of the research groups and sources within the zebrafish community.

2) The PUBLICATIONS class catalogs all of the publications that have been produced by the community.

NOTES:


Data Descriptions for The Zebrafish Database (ZDB)
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