Reference Data

The Reference Data application manages controlled vocabularies and shared laboratory data. While it does not offer the full capabilities of advanced ontology management systems (e.g., CENtree), it is sufficient for most use cases.

In Reference Data, an administrator can define custom vocabularies, arrange vocabulary items in a hierarchy, and tag them with additional properties to facilitate searching.

Reference Data also centralizes shared data for use by other applications, such as labware items and locations.

Reference Data Concepts

Vocabulary

A controlled vocabulary is a list of terms describing a specific domain of knowledge. Only one term is used to describe a particular concept, excluding synonyms. Each term should have a definition and, in public vocabularies, a unique identifier for referencing.

In the Reference Data, vocabulary items can be arranged in a hierarchy, similar to taxonomies. Unlike ontologies, there are no item-to-item relationships. For simplicity, the term controlled vocabulary is used throughout this documentation.

Annotation

An annotation is an attribute that can be added, deleted, or modified for an object to enrich analysis results.

An object is the target of an annotation and can be:

• A plate, well, or vial in Sample
• A plate, well, or any data in Assay
• An attribute of an assay in Catalog

The list of available objects is defined by the Assay Team and updated with new releases. Each object can have several linked annotations.

Each annotation has a type: Text, Number, or Vocabulary (from Reference Data).

Labware Items

Labware items are the physical objects used in the laboratory, such as plates, racks, and vials.

Sites

Sites are the locations where you work or store materials. They can represent a country, building, laboratory, freezer, etc. For example, sites are used to define the locations of labware items and other laboratory objects.