The Monarch Initiative

Completed by Nicole Kalcic and Dina Bashour

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• General information about the database
  1. Link to the database: https://monarchinitiative.org
  2. The database focuses on human disease related genotypes/phenotypes. (https://monarchinitiative.org/page/about)
     1. The database uses model organisms for phenotype comparison within/across species. (https://monarchinitiative.org)
     2. What type of data source does it have?
        • primary versus secondary ("meta")
        • curated versus non-curated
        • electronic versus human curation
        • in-house staff versus community curation
  3. The Monarch Initiative is maintained by several institutions, including Oregon Health & Science University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, The Jackson Laboratory, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Queen Mary University of London, Garvan Institute, Renaissance Computing Institute - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and University of Pittsburgh. More information about the contributing individuals at each institution can be found by clicking on the hyperlink. (https://monarchinitiative.org/page/team)
  4. The institutions found funding for the database through a National Institutes of Health Office of the Director Grant, as well as through the National Institutes of Health Undiagnosed Diseases Program. (https://monarchinitiative.org/page/team) (https://www.genome.gov/27544402/the-undiagnosed-diseases-program/)
• Scientific quality of the database
  1. Does the content appear to completely cover its content domain?
     • How many records does the database contain?
     • What claims do the database owners make about coverage in the corresponding paper?
  2. What species are covered in the database?
  3. Is the database content useful? I.e., what biological questions can it be used to answer?
  4. Is the database content timely?
     • Is there a need in the scientific community for such a database at this time?
     • Is the content covered by other databases already?
     • When did the database first go online?
     • How often is the database updated?
     • When was the last update?
• General utility of the database to the scientific community
  1. Are there links to other databases? Which ones?
  2. Is it convenient to browse the data?
  3. Is it convenient to download the data?
     • In what file formats are the data provided?
     • Are they standard or non-standard formats?
  4. Evaluate the “user-friendliness” of the database: can a naive user quickly navigate the website and gather useful information?
     • Is the website well-organized?
     • Does it have a help section or tutorial?
     • Are the search options sensible?
     • Run a sample query. Do the results make sense?
  5. Access: Is there a license agreement or any restrictions on access to the database?
• Summary judgment
  1. Would you direct a colleague unfamiliar with the field to use it?
  2. Is this a professional or hobby database?