Frequently Asked Questions

How do I share my data?

In brief, to share data, you must register your study and the data you intend to share, upload the data to a private workspace in the Synapse data sharing platform, and annotating the data, and releasing the data. Please read the How to Share Data guide for step by step instructions.

What does annotation, or annotating your data, mean?

Annotation is the process of labeling your data files with terms from the NF-OSI dictionary. By adding clinical or experimental annotations, you will help make the data easier for others to find and understand things like: what type of data it is, what sort of experiment was performed, what type of biological system it came from, and what format the data is. Metadata/annotation is not a substitute for sharing protocols or methodology; it won’t help someone reproduce an experiment from scratch, but it will help them get a basic understanding of the nature of the data, and can be very helpful to people who aim to reuse the data (or even future you)!

Where can I find definitions for terms in the NF-OSI dictionary?

The core NF-OSI metadata dictionary is hosted on Google Sheets.

• The Attribute column lists all NF-OSI terms: concepts (like dataType) and values for those concepts (like geneExpression).

• The Description column provides a definition for each Attribute.

• The Valid Values column lists all of the terms that are allowed for concepts listed in the Attribute column.

• The remaining columns are out of the scope of this FAQ, but are documented in detail here.