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. 2023 Apr 18;8(1):e10365.
doi: 10.1002/lrh2.10365. eCollection 2024 Jan.

Toward a common standard for data and specimen provenance in life sciences

Rudolf Wittner  1   2 , Petr Holub  1   2 , Cecilia Mascia  3 , Francesca Frexia  3 , Heimo Müller  4 , Markus Plass  4 , Clare Allocca  5 , Fay Betsou  6 , Tony Burdett  7 , Ibon Cancio  8 , Adriane Chapman  9 , Martin Chapman  10 , Mélanie Courtot  11 , Vasa Curcin  10 , Johann Eder  12 , Mark Elliot  13 , Katrina Exter  14 , Carole Goble  15 , Martin Golebiewski  16 , Bron Kisler  17 , Andreas Kremer  18 , Simone Leo  3 , Sheng Lin-Gibson  19 , Anna Marsano  20 , Marco Mattavelli  21 , Josh Moore  22   23 , Hiroki Nakae  24 , Isabelle Perseil  25 , Ayat Salman  26   27 , James Sluka  28 , Stian Soiland-Reyes  15   29 , Caterina Strambio-De-Castillia  30 , Michael Sussman  31 , Jason R Swedlow  22 , Kurt Zatloukal  4 , Jörg Geiger  32
Affiliations

Toward a common standard for data and specimen provenance in life sciences

Rudolf Wittner et al. Learn Health Syst. .

Abstract

Open and practical exchange, dissemination, and reuse of specimens and data have become a fundamental requirement for life sciences research. The quality of the data obtained and thus the findings and knowledge derived is thus significantly influenced by the quality of the samples, the experimental methods, and the data analysis. Therefore, a comprehensive and precise documentation of the pre-analytical conditions, the analytical procedures, and the data processing are essential to be able to assess the validity of the research results. With the increasing importance of the exchange, reuse, and sharing of data and samples, procedures are required that enable cross-organizational documentation, traceability, and non-repudiation. At present, this information on the provenance of samples and data is mostly either sparse, incomplete, or incoherent. Since there is no uniform framework, this information is usually only provided within the organization and not interoperably. At the same time, the collection and sharing of biological and environmental specimens increasingly require definition and documentation of benefit sharing and compliance to regulatory requirements rather than consideration of pure scientific needs. In this publication, we present an ongoing standardization effort to provide trustworthy machine-actionable documentation of the data lineage and specimens. We would like to invite experts from the biotechnology and biomedical fields to further contribute to the standard.

Keywords: International Organization for Standardization; biotechnology; provenance information; standardization.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
An overview of the provenance chain. A sample obtained from a donor (or other sources) is created and an initial set of provenance information (PI) is generated. As that sample moves through time and space, is processed and/or analyzed, additional provenance data are appended to the provenance chain for each new item. The chain can be extended as a complete unit of later stages of provenance or use unique identifiers to refer to early stages of provenance data. The figure cited from.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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