Cell-level metadata are indispensable for documenting single-cell sequencing datasets
Open Access
- 4 May 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLoS Biology
- Vol. 19 (5), e3001077
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001077
Abstract
Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) provides an unprecedented view of cellular diversity of biological systems. However, across the thousands of publications and datasets generated using this technology, we estimate that only a minority (<25%) of studies provide cell-level metadata information containing identified cell types and related findings of the published dataset. Metadata omission hinders reproduction, exploration, validation, and knowledge transfer and is a common problem across journals, data repositories, and publication dates. We encourage investigators, reviewers, journals, and data repositories to improve their standards and ensure proper documentation of these valuable datasets.Funding Information
- RNA Bioscience Initiative at the University of Colorado School of Medicine
- National Institutes of Health (R35 GM119550)
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