Metadata matters: access to image data in the real world

TLDR

Data sharing in biology is essential to avoid duplication, uphold integrity, and accelerate discovery, yet multidimensional microscopy images are hindered by diverse proprietary formats that complicate centralized repositories. The authors call for the adoption of an open image data standard and for imaging platforms to support it, with the goal of building a foundation for an open image data repository. They describe an open standard format for microscopy image data that overcomes the challenges posed by proprietary file formats.

Abstract

Data sharing is important in the biological sciences to prevent duplication of effort, to promote scientific integrity, and to facilitate and disseminate scientific discovery. Sharing requires centralized repositories, and submission to and utility of these resources require common data formats. This is particularly challenging for multidimensional microscopy image data, which are acquired from a variety of platforms with a myriad of proprietary file formats (PFFs). In this paper, we describe an open standard format that we have developed for microscopy image data. We call on the community to use open image data standards and to insist that all imaging platforms support these file formats. This will build the foundation for an open image data repository.