Meeting report: the fourth Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) workshop.

Abstract This meeting report summarizes the proceedings of the “eGenomics: Cataloguing our Complete Genome Collection IV” workshop held June 6–8, 2007, at the National Institute for Environmental eScience (NIEeS), Cambridge, United Kingdom. This fourth workshop of the Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) was a mix of short presentations, strategy discussions, and technical sessions. Speakers provided progress reports on the development of the “Minimum Information about a Genome Sequence” (MIGS) specification and the closely integrated “Minimum Information about a Metagenome Sequence” (MIMS) specification. The key outcome of the workshop was consensus on the next version of the MIGS/MIMS specification (v1.2). This drove further definition and restructuring of the MIGS/MIMS XML schema (syntax). With respect to semantics, a term vetting group was established to ensure that terms are properly defined and submitted to the appropriate ontology projects. Perhaps the single most important outcome of the workshop wa...