Browse the glossary to learn more about terms and definitions used within Synapse.
ACT
Abbreviation for the Synapse Access and Compliance Team, a group of people who are responsible for setting, maintaining, and controlling governance throughout Sage and its platforms. The ACT recommends appropriate safeguards depending on the type of data and who can access it, and can apply certain limitations or conditions for data access based on how the data will be shared.
Find more information on the ACT here.
Annotations
Annotations help users search for and find data, and they are a powerful tool used to systematically group and/or describe things in Synapse.
Annotations are stored as key-value pairs in Synapse, where the key defines a particular aspect of your data (for example, species, assay, file format) and the value defines a variable that belongs to that category (mouse, RNAseq, .bam). You can use annotations to add additional information about a project, file, folder, table, or view.
Annotations can be based on an existing ontology or controlled vocabulary, or can be created as needed and modified later as your metadata evolves.
Anonymous Access Tier
This is a type of data access setting—data set at this tier is available for anyone on the web, without Conditions for Use.
API
Abbreviation for Application Programming Interface, this is a type of software application that allows for the integration or connection between otherwise unconnected services. Synapse uses API clients to allow for the programmatic use of certain tasks, such as uploading and downloading data.
Find more information, including installation instructions, on Sage’s API clients here.
Certified User
Command line
Controlled Access Tier -
D
Data dictionary -
Data science -
Data model -
Digital object identifier -
Docker -
E
Entity -
Experimental mode -
F
FAIR -
G
Governance -
J
JSON -
JSON schema -
K
Key-value pairs -
M
Markdown -
Metadata -
O
Ontology -
Open Access Tier -
P
Permissions -
Private Access Tier -
Project -
Provenance -
Python -
R
Registered User -
REST -
RNAseq -
S
Schema -
Sharing Settings -
Synapse ID -
Synapse Manifest -
V
Validated User -