The publication and database deposition of molecular interaction data

Depositing data to a public domain interaction database not only improves the quality and quantity of interactions available to the user community, but also increases the visibility of the data, with members of the International Molecular Exchange (IMEx) databases making the information available in all participating resources. Datasets submitted prior to publication will be issued an accession number that may be included in a publication and which increases user accessibility to the data. No dataset is too small for submission, and the database curators will provide assistance in ensuring the information is correctly represented. This unit provides several alternative protocols to assist the author in preparing and submitting data as an integral part of the manuscript-preparation process. Which method the author selects is largely dictated by the amount of data to be deposited. In addition, two support protocols describe assignment of unambiguous accession numbers and use of controlled vocabulary terms.