Minimum Information Standards

Minimum Information (MI) standards or reporting guidelines specify the minimum amount of meta data (information) and data required to meet a specific aims or aims. Usually the aim is to provide enough meta data and data to enable the unambiguous reproduction and interpretation of an experiment. MI guidelines are normally informal human readable specifications that inform the development of formal data models (e.g. XML, UML, ontology) and data exchange formats e.g. (MAGE-ML, MGED-Ontology).

MIAME,gene expression microarray
Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment (MIAME) describes the Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment that is needed to enable the interpretation of the results of the experiment unambiguously and potentially to reproduce the experiment and is aimed at facilitating the dissemination of data from microarray experiments.

MIAME contains a number of extensions to cover specific biological domains

MIARE, RNAi experiment
Minimum Information About an RNAi Experiment (MIARE) is a data reporting guideline which describes the minimum information that should be reported about an RNAi experiment to enable the unambiguous interpretation and reproduction of the results.

MIAPE, proteomic experiments
Minimal Information About a Proteomic Experiment documents describe information which should be given along with a proteomic experiment.

MIGS, genome sequence
The MIGS ("Minimum Information about a Genome Sequence") is being developed by the GenomicStandards Consortium (GSC). MIGS is intended to provide for the capture of a richer set of metadata describing genomic but also metagenomic datasets. Since environmental content is critical for describing metagenomic datasets, the GSC is also developing MIMS ("Minimum Information about a Metagenomic Sample") as an extension of MIGS. A manuscript describing MIGS is currently in a community consultation at Nature Biotechnology. See the GSC website for more information about contributing to this project.

MIRIAM, Minimum information requested in the annotation of biochemical models
MIRIAM, the Minimal Information Requested In the Annotation of Models, is a set of rules for curating quantitative models of biological systems.

MIBBI Minimum Information for Biological and Biomedical Investigations
A ‘one-stop shop’ for exploring the range of extant projects, foster collaborative development and ultimately promote gradual integration.

MGED The Microarray Gene Expression Data Society
(MGED) Society is an international organisation of biologists, computer scientists, and data analysts that aims to facilitate the sharing of microarray data generated by functional genomics and proteomics experiments.

HUPO-PSI HUPO Protein Standards Initiative
The HUPO Proteomics Standards Initiative (PSI) defines community standards for data representation in proteomics to facilitate data comparison, exchange and verification.

FuGE Functional Genomics Experiment
FuGE provides a model of common components in functional genomics investigations. It can be extended to develop modular data formats and provides a consistent framework to capture complete lab workflows.

MSI The Metabolomics Standards Initiative
MSI has be appointed by the Metabolomics Society to monitor, coordinate and review the efforts of working groups in specialist areas that will examine standardization and make recommendations.

MIARE, Minimum Information About an RNAi Experiment
Minimum Information About an RNAi Experiment (MIARE) is a data reporting guideline which describes the minimum information that should be reported about an RNAi experiment to enable the unambiguous interpretation and reproduction of the results.

Nature Community Consultation
Standards papers under consideration for publication in Nature Biotechnology.