Data portal manual

1Introduction

1.1Background

Journal articles in peer-reviewed journals remain the main mechanism to communicate scientific findings. In such papers, data is organized in figures that together comprise a narrative. However, due to space limitations and focus, not all insights from biomedical analysis can be captured in a few figures and a single manuscript. To capture more value from biomedical datasets, the original data should be shared with the scientific community for re-analysis. Re-analysis of data can answer different questions and lead to novel insights that were not captured in the original research paper.

1.2 What is an Unicle data portal?

Our data portals make scientific data available through an easy-to-use interface. Our clients will be able to share their data via the data portal, whereas users of the data portal will be able to interactively explore the data, and (optionally) download data. The data portal abstracts away much of the script writing and coding required to visualize, explore and download data. This allows data portal users to efficiently focus on deriving new insights. All figures and tables produced in the data portal can be custom-tailored to the users house style and / or to optimize for publication to peer-reviewed scientific journals. The data portals allow scientists across the world to publish and share scientific biomedical data. 

1.3  Having a data portal increases the return on your scientific efforts

By having a data portal you increase the chances of publication in top journals. You will also create a legacy by providing useful resources to the scientific community and increase the impact and re-use of the scientific data published on your portal.

2Navigating a data portal

Content on a data portal is organized into tracks which correspond to a figure in the associated article. Indivudal tracks consist of plots corresponding to figure panels. Addiotionally, interactive tables can also be found in the "Supplement" track. 

2.1 Navigating figures and plots

To navigate between tracks and plots of a data portal you can use breadcrumbs, tiles and a side menu. This way you can evaluate the figures as produced by the data publisher. Click on the "View" button to open a track and see the plots that track contains.

2.2 Viewing enlarged plots

You can click the "View" button on any plot inside a track to enlarge it and examine it in more detail. To the right of the enlarged plot you can read the plot caption and the methods that were used to generate the plot, in case you wish to reproduce it.

2.3 Viewing interactive plots

Some plots hosted on a data portal are interactive. You can tell which plots are interactive by their green "Interactive" banner. 

When clicking on the "View interactively" button of an enlarged plot with the "Interactive" banner you will be taken to the fully interactive version of the plot in the UniApp.

Here you will be free to explore the interactive plot and customize the visualization to highlight the results that are of interest for you. You can also export your custom visualization to save it.

Once you are done using the interactive version of the plot you can return via breadcrumbs to the static version of the data portal to contiue exploring it. (TODO)

3 Video tutorial

Coming soon.