header

A Short Study on the Success of the Gene Ontology

6 Pages Posted: 23 Jun 2018 Publication Status: Accepted

See all articles by Michael Bada

Michael Bada

The University of Manchester - Department of Computer Science

Robert Stevens

The University of Manchester - Department of Computer Science

Carole Goble

The University of Manchester - School of Computer Science

Yolanda Gil

University of Southern California - Information Sciences Institute

Michael Ashburner

University of Cambridge - Department of Genetics

Judith A. Blake

The Jackson Laboratory

J. Michael Cherry

Stanford University - Department of Genetics

Midori Harris

Wellcome Trust Genome Campus - EBI-Hinxton

Suzanna Lewis

University of California, Berkeley - Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project

Abstract

While most ontologies have been used only by the groups who created them and for their initially defined purposes, the Gene Ontology (GO), an evolving structured controlled vocabulary of nearly 16,000 terms in the domain of biological functionality, has been widely used for annotation of biological-database entries and in biomedical research. As a set of learned lessons offered to other ontology developers, we list and briefly discuss the characteristics of GO that we believe are most responsible for its success: community involvement; clear goals; limited scope; simple, intuitive structure; continuous evolution; active curation; and early use.

Keywords: Gene Ontology, ontology development, biological database, annotation

Suggested Citation

Bada, Michael and Stevens, Robert and Goble, Carole and Gil, Yolanda and Ashburner, Michael and Blake, Judith A. and Cherry, J. Michael and Harris, Midori and Lewis, Suzanna, A Short Study on the Success of the Gene Ontology (2004). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3199018 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3199018

Michael Bada (Contact Author)

The University of Manchester - Department of Computer Science ( email )

Kilburn Building, Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9GH, M13 9PL
United Kingdom

Robert Stevens

The University of Manchester - Department of Computer Science ( email )

Kilburn Building, Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9GH, M13 9PL
United Kingdom

Carole Goble

The University of Manchester - School of Computer Science ( email )

Kilburn Building, Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9GH, M13 9PL
United Kingdom

Yolanda Gil

University of Southern California - Information Sciences Institute ( email )

4676 Admiralty Way
Suite 1001
Marina del Rey, CA 90292
United States

Michael Ashburner

University of Cambridge - Department of Genetics ( email )

Downing Street
Cambridge, CB2 3EH
United Kingdom

Judith A. Blake

The Jackson Laboratory ( email )

600 Main Street
Bar Harbor, ME 04609
United States

J. Michael Cherry

Stanford University - Department of Genetics ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States

Midori Harris

Wellcome Trust Genome Campus - EBI-Hinxton ( email )

Hinxton
Cambridge, CB10 1SA
United Kingdom

Suzanna Lewis

University of California, Berkeley - Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project ( email )

142 LSA #3200
Berkeley, CA
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
32
Abstract Views
384
PlumX Metrics