Sense makers: How standards are enabling data reuse in the life sciences

"A bit like sorting a messy pile of clothes into a neatly arranged closet, minimal information standards transform unstructured data from journal articles into structured databases. This enables researchers to "mine" across multiple datasets, reuse data, and gain new insights.

Minimum information standards are guidelines and formats for reporting scientific data generated by high-throughput methods, such as genome sequencing. They ensure all datasets are structured in the same way, making them easy to find, verify, and analyze by researchers worldwide. Standards also provide context for datasets—for example, when, where, and how the data were generated, or what species they describe...."