REPORT: Registry release with comprehensive coverage of ELIXIR Node resources, including resource data format curation and analysis

The objective of EXCELERATE Deliverable 1.1 is the development of a discovery portal (bio.tools) built upon a federated curation of a registry of key software resources for bioinformatics worldwide. The core aim is to provide a practical portal that will help scientists with resource discovery and interoperability.

Four reports (D1.1 - D1.4) describe the portal:
M12 : prototyping of portal software and registry data model, addition of seed content
M24 : consolidation of software features and content to a stable model
M36 : expansion of registry content towards comprehensive coverage, with new registry features
M48 : integration with other software systems, registry applications and portal impact evaluation

This report (D1.2 at M24) describes a balance of consolidation and expansion of the prototype described in D1.1, which presented 2,550 entries as seed content. In light of these data we have validated and improved the model, ontology and software, whilst taking major strides towards comprehensive coverage of prevalent tools envisioned for D1.3.

This deliverable report describes work done with ELIXIR-EXCELERATE resources.
Design and development aspects include: production of a stable data model (biotoolsSchema 2.0.0) with improved controlled vocabularies
development of an emerging information standard for tools, based upon the model,
providing a path for content quality improvement
three new EDAM ontology releases
revision of the client and server-side software including conformance to the model and new, community-requested features

Operational aspects include:
development of the community build-up process contributing to the portal (currently 537
contributors of content)
registry growth to 5,952 entries refactored to the model and with preliminary clean-up guided by the information standard
97,262 aggregated annotations on tools including 7477 publication IDs (95% of entries)

In addition, we describe specific developments as envisioned for milestones below (all due in M24), including new prototype user interface components, features, utilities, and content developments:

M1.7.1 “Implementation of novel highly usable interfaces from analysis of user experience and usability requirements”
M1.3 “Implementation of registry-literature integration”
M1.1.2 “EDAM release with coverage of different resource categories and RIs. Implementation of tooling for sustainable community development”
M1.4 “Implementation of support for “close to source” resource annotation in key documentation generators, and software development frameworks”

Our priority to date has been tool and service providers with a focus on content growth (i.e. operating the portal and providing more content). In light of general community feedback, and specific recommendations from the EXCELERATE midterm review, focus now shifts to content quality and (somewhat longer term) an increasing priority to foster the community of tool developers and end-users. Importantly, we now have a clearer picture of the desired “endgame”: to provide a persistent reference to high-quality (curated and verified) “canonical” descriptions of unique tools, with information about their provision via online services and various downloadable artefacts, and including entries for different versions of a tool, where these have major functional differences.

Detailed information on new technical components is included. All aspects of the project are interdependent and work is ongoing in all areas, to ensure sustainable and high quality content growth, develop useful features for end-users and to support emerging integration scenarios and applications. The report describes progress made thus far and includes a summary of anticipated developments.