The International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC) has announced further details on its new minimal standards for reporting spatiotemporal metadata. By the end of May 2023, the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) will mandate submission of country and collection date metadata in samples unless a valid exemption is declared.
The INSDC has announced further details on the new standards being introduced for reporting spatiotemporal metadata as part of our aim to make sequence data more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). The ENA and its INSDC partners are set to introduce mandatory spatio-temporal information for all new samples by the end of May 2023 unless a valid exemption is declared. In the period before the standards are formally applied, the INSDC has expanded the missing value reporting guidelines with immediate effect and the ENA has also implemented some additional changes to sample metadata reporting to enable a smooth transition for our regular, repeat users and brokers.
With immediate effect, spatiotemporal metadata fields have been added to all ENA sample checklists that were missing them. These fields will also now appear in submission templates by default to enable users to adapt to this change, though they will not be mandated until the switchover.
The ENA are also working to harmonise the reporting of spatiotemporal metadata across all sample checklists. We will be moving to standardise the use of field names Geographic location (country and/or sea) and collection date in all checklists. Old field names will remain valid for backwards compatibility and this will remain the case even after the switchover, but we encourage users to transition to the new names where possible. These changes mean that existing workflows and pipelines will not be immediately affected, but should enable users to begin transitioning workflows in advance of the introduction of the new INSDC standard.
By the end of May 2023, for sample registration, all checklists including the default checklist will include geographic location (country and/or sea) and collection date as mandatory. Users will need to report spatiotemporal metadata to the nearest country (or sea) and year unless a valid exemption is declared and further granularity is always encouraged. Please note that from the end of May 2023, the standards are recognised for any BioSamples linked to INSDC data so please also follow the guidelines when submitting samples directly via the BioSamples service when there is the intention of linking these to ENA data.
We are looking forward to seeing an increase in the richness of metadata provided to INSDC and to the increased ability for our users to identify the source of sequences in time and space. As always, we thank users who have provided feedback and encourage any further feedback on these changes. If you have any comments or questions, please contact us at ena-collaborations@ebi.ac.uk.
Documentation of this technical implementation can be viewed with our user documentation with further details and examples.
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