Registering a Resource to NIF
NIF provides multiple levels of access to neuroscience resources and is actively seeking resource providers to make their resources available through NIF. The goal of NIF is to bring people to your site; NIF does not maintain any resources locally. NIF has a full time curator and technical support to assist with the registration process.
Level 1: At the simplest level, registering a resource to the NIF requires providing NIF with the URL and some basic information about the type of resource. This level places the resource in the NIF Registry, where it is available through direct query and through the NIF Web. Both provide links back to the original resource. Use our curation tool to register a resource to NIF at level 1.
Level 1 registration provides information about the resource, but does not provide direct access to dynamic content or to the structure of the content. NIF is developing strategies for deeper access to dynamic resources through its Level 2 and Level 3 registration tools.
Level 2: Level 2 uses an XML-based script to provide a wrapper to a web site that allows NIF to search for key details about the web site and some information about dynamic content. It utilizes the DISCO protocol developed by Dr. Luis Marenco at Yale University for the Neuroscience Database Gateway. The advantage of level 2 registration is that the content is dynamically updated from the source file, ensuring that all content is up to date. We are working to improve the DISCO protocol and to provide some user-friendly tools for generating the XML file.
Level 3: Level 3 integration utilizes a data integration framework to knit independently maintained databases into a virtual data federation through registration of schema information and database views with the NIF mediator. A concept mapping tool is available to map tables, fields and values to the NIFSTD ontology. Resource providers do not need to change their resource in any way and may control the content that is exposed to the NIF database mediator. Level 3 provides several advantages to resource providers:
- Mapping to the NIF vocabularies provides the means to provide a standardized terminology and also to search through the relationships contained in the NIF ontologies.
- Data within a source database can be combined with that from other databases by defining an integrated view across databases.
- Individual databases may be small and not change on a regular basis; thus, unlike large databases like GenBank, users may not visit it regularly. The NIF Data Federation, through aggregation of many smaller resources, creates a large, dynamic virtual source, ensuring that the database content of the individual resources is accessed on a regular basis.
At level 3, users can query across distributed databases as if they were a single database. Level 3 registration involves a two step process: 1) registering a resource with the NIF mediator; 2) mapping content to the NIF vocabularies. The first step of registration requires technical knowledge of the database capabilities and network settings of the resource using a specialized tool available through the NIF. The second step is performed by a domain expert in consultation with a database administrator and is accomplished using the NIF Concept Mapping tool. We are actively looking for level 3 partners to work with us to continue to develop the level 3 tools. For more information, contact Anita Bandrowski at curation@neuinfo.org.
If you would like your resource included in NIF, please register a resource with our curation tool. A member of NIF will contact you to determine the best way that NIF can access your resource.
