If you believe that a sequence or its metadata has a possible mistake or error, you can propose that the sequence or metadata is corrected. To do this, you should prepare:
Remember that you should be able to show some strong reasons for why the current data is incorrect, such as phylogenies, links to articles, or other information or knowledge about the pathogen or sequences.
Create a new issue in the GitHub repository ‘Curation Reports’. If you don’t have a GitHub account, you will need to create one in order to do this.
To create an issue, use the button on the top-left in the above repository, or click here.
Follow each step in the issue template to provide as much information as possible:
Describe the issue: Please detail why or how the sequences/metadata seem to be incorrect, and what issues this may cause.
Provide evidence: Post links or images showing analyses performed, such as phylogenies, time-association, or similar, that higlights the issue, or links to articles, manuscripts, or other reputable sources that show why the information is likely not correct.
Suggest the change: Propose what should be done to fix the issue(s), in as much detail as possible. If possible and appropriate, you can provide a table or file that shows the accession numbers and what the value in question should be changed to.
If the suspected error is potentially significantly misleading and no correction is possible, you can propose the sequence be revoked.
Full list of sequences affected: Please provide a full list of sequences that are impacted by this suspected issue, so that all can be corrected if appropriate. Please only list sequences affected by this particular issue - if there is another problem with other sequences, please create a new issue.
After writing your issue, please submit it, and it will be publicly viewable.
Issues will be considered by Pathoplexus Curators. Two curators will need to agree that the issue is real, and that the solution you propose is correct, for the issue to be taken further. However, anyone can comment on and discuss the issue to debate whether the correction is appropriate or not.
If it is deemed there’s not yet sufficient evidence but more information may come, Curators may leave the issue open for further discussion.
However, if Curators determine there the issue is not supported, or that there is unlikely to be enough evidence to support it in the near future, the issue may be closed.
If two Curators decide an issue should be corrected, how it is flagged and fixed will depend on whether it was submitted directly or came from INSDC.
You can read about how Curators make these decisions in the Curator SOP.