Standards and Best Practices For Reporting Flow Cytometry Observations. Version 1.0.

Abstract

This technical manual guides the user through the detailed process of creating a standardized data table for the submission of taxonomic and morphological information collected by flow cytometry to long-term data repositories. Guidance is provided to produce documentation that describes data collection and processing techniques and outlines the creation of a data file. Field names that are required include scientificName that represents the lowest level taxonomic classification (e.g., genus if not certain of species, family if not certain of genus) and scientificNameID, the unique identifier from a reference database such as the World Register of Marine Species or AlgaeBase. The data table described here also includes the field names volume_analyzed_ul, measurementValue, measurementValueID and abun. The field names measurementValue and measurementValueID are recommended terms developed by NERC to describe morphological properties of cells. Data producers are required to submit their source data (.fcs files) as bundles and may optionally submit data plots as image files. Following these steps for standardization will help optimize the interoperability and reuse of these important data sets.