The 24th annualNucleic Acids Researchdatabase issue: a look back and upcoming changes

Michael Y. Galperin, Xosé M. Fernández-Suárez, Daniel J. Rigden
2017 Nucleic Acids Research  
This year's Database Issue of Nucleic Acids Research contains 152 papers that include descriptions of 54 new databases and update papers on 98 databases, of which 16 have not been previously featured in NAR. As always, these databases cover a broad range of molecular biology subjects, including genome structure, gene expression and its regulation, proteins, protein domains, and proteinprotein interactions. Following the recent trend, an increasing number of new and established databases deal
more » ... h the issues of human health, from cancercausing mutations to drugs and drug targets. In accordance with this trend, three recently compiled databases that have been selected by NAR reviewers and editors as 'breakthrough' contributions, DENOVO-DB, the Monarch Initiative, and Open Targets, cover human de novo gene variants, disease-related phenotypes in model organisms, and a bioinformatics platform for therapeutic target identification and validation, respectively. We expect these databases to attract the attention of numerous researchers working in various areas of genetics and genomics. Looking back at the past 12 years, we present here the 'golden set' of databases that have consistently served as authoritative, comprehensive, and convenient data resources widely used by the entire community and offer some lessons on what makes a successful database. The Database Issue is freely available online at the https://academic.oup.com/nar web site. An updated version of the NAR Molecular Biology Database Collection is available at http: //www.oxfordjournals.org/nar/database/a/.
doi:10.1093/nar/gkw1188 pmid:28053160 pmcid:PMC5210597 fatcat:jbvd2nm6undn5k4rtwng33pxiq