Welcome to Biomed Resource Watch!

Biomed Resource Watch (BRW) is a unique knowledge base for storing validation and performance information about research resources such as antibodies, cell lines, and tools. It is a new service platform that uses Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs) to aggregate and disseminate known issues and validation information about antibodies, cell lines, and tools. With its easy-to-use interface, Resource Watch allows researchers to report and share information about resources making this validation and performance information F.A.I.R. (Findable, Accessable, Interoperable, Reuseable).

Biomed Resource Watch is a product of dkNET (NIDDK Information Network, https://dknet.org), a research resource information portal funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, U24DK097771), built by the FDI (FAIR Data Informatics) Lab at the University of California San Diego. Biomed Resource Watch provides critical resource information to dkNET’s Resource Reports and the RRID portal (Research Resource Identifier Portal, https://scicrunch.org/Resources). Biomed Resource Watch relies on RRIDs (RRID Knowledge Base recently funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGSM), R24GM144308), unique identifiers for research resources, to aggregate and disseminate known problems and performance information about research resources.

If you find Biomed Resource Watch (BRW) useful in your research, please cite us in your grant proposal or publication using the following language:

“Information on XXXX was provided by Biomed Resource Watch (RRID:SCR_021761; https://scicrunch.org/ResourceWatch) provided by dkNET, an NIDDK-supported resource”

Additionally, if BRW points you to issue and/or validation information you find useful, please credit the respective information source.

Feature highlights

• BRW enhances scientific rigor and reproducibility by enabling researchers to communicate information about their resources

  • Access Information while planning the experiments

    BRW allows researchers the ability to access aggregated data on entities related to their research. Information such as whether an antibody has validation information, or whether a cell line has been labeled as contaminated, becomes searchable.

  • Report information to contribute to the biomedical community and make validation/problematic information FAIR (Findable, Accessable, Interoperable, Reuseable).

    BRW provides curators and researchers an easy-to-use interface to report issue and/or validation information. This in part enriches Resource Watch, where over time, it will grow to be a central platform for the biomedical community to view and share information on materials that they’ve used within their research.

    • What is the information that we accept on this platform?

      Researchers can report the following types of the information:

      Antibodies:
      • Antibody validation data from an experiment, an existing paper, or a publicly available database.
      • Antibody issues such as non-specific from an experiment, an existing paper, or a publicly available database.
      • Report that an antibody is no longer available for purchase (antibody discontinued)
      Cell Lines:
      • Cell line validation information: the STR (short tandem repeat) profiling form including method, results, and the date that the STR profiling was performed.
      • Cell line issues from an experiment, an existing paper, or a publicly available database.
      • Report that a cell line is no longer available for purchase or request (Cell Lines Discontinued)
      • Report the information about a contaminated cell line
      • Report that a cell line is misidentified such as mislabeling, or other laboratory errors.
      • Report that a cell line is misclassified, i.e., fibroblasts cell lines are misclassified as cancer cell lines.
      Tools:
      • Tool validation information from an experiment, an existing paper, or a publicly available database
      • Tool issues from an experiment, an existing paper, or a publicly available database
      • Report that a tool is no longer available for use (Tool Discontinued)

    • For the researchers' contributions, the information will be reviewed by curators in 5-7 business days and the data will be released to the public after curation has been completed. The data in the BRW is with the CC-BY license, which means that it permits sharing and reuse of the material, for any purpose, as long as the original authors are credited. Anyone using the material must provide credit to the BioMed Resource Watch and original sources and indicate clearly any changes that were made, and there is a legal obligation to do this. We are currently working on integrating data to the Resource Information Network including dkNET’s Resource Reports and resolver at RRID portal.

      If the curator rejects or takes down a submission, we will document the reason that the information is taken down. If there is competing information, we will make the information available. If a user or a commercial company disagrees with the accuracy of the information, the user or a commercial company can submit a dispute with supporting publications.

      If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us (info@dknet.org), we would be happy to assist you or connect you with the authorized sources.

• A continuously up-to date resource information service base-on the RRIDs

  BRW is a new service platform that aggregates and disseminates known validation information and issues with individual research resources (antibodies, cell lines, and tools) based on unique research resource identifiers - RRIDs (what is an RRID?)

• A repository that you can trust

  BRW aggregates trustworthy information from reputable sources, including

  • Antibody Registry (https://antibodyregistry.org/)
  • Human Protein Atlas (https://www.proteinatlas.org/)
  • ENCODE (https://www.encodeproject.org/)
  • Cellosaurus (https://www.cellosaurus.org/)
  • Community research centers (i.e., Intestinal Stem Cell Consortium (ISCC, https://iscconsortium.org/), core facilities…etc.)
  • Antibody Watch - information extracted from the literature via natural language processing (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34043624/)
  • YCharos (https://ycharos.com/)
  • SciCrunch Registry (https://scicrunch.org/)
  • More to come…

Report an issue or validation information?

It's easy! Follow these steps:

1. Find your resource (tutorial)
2. Fill in a simple form (tutorial)
3. Upload the document (tutorial)

For bulk upload, please contact us at info@dknet.org