Submitting suggestions to GO using SourceForge
The SourceForge Tracker
This system allows GO users to submit suggestions for changes to the ontologies to the GO curators. Any sort of change may be proposed, from suggestions for new terms to correcting spelling mistakes you may have noticed. The submitter can track the status of a suggestion, both online and by email, and other users can see what changes are currently under consideration.
Setting up a SourceForge account
Setting up your own SourceForge account allows you to track your submitted requests by email and online.
To set up an account, access the SourceForge homepage and click on Create Account in the upper right-hand corner.
Once you have registered you will be sent two e-mails. One will be a 'New Account Confirmation Letter' and the second will give you instructions and a URL to complete your registration process and activate your new account.
Once registered, you can log on to the SourceForge site by clicking Log in in the upper right-hand corner.
Submitting a suggestion to GO
Access the GO ontology requests tracker.
This page displays a list of all submitted requests. Clicking on a specific request summary will bring up more detailed information about that request.
At the top of the page you can navigate to various parts of the Gene Ontology project on SourceForge. To enter a new request, click 'Add New'. Choose from the category options 'New term request', 'Other term related request', and 'Term obsoletion' according to the nature of your suggestion. In the 'Summary' field, enter the subject of your suggestion; this text will appear in the 'Summary' field of the requests list. Ignore the 'Group' field, but fill the details of your request in the 'Detailed Description' field. If you are requesting a new term to be added to the ontology, it is useful for GO curators if you include as much of the following information as possible:
- the term name
- a suggested definition
- a suggestion of where it should appear in the GO hierarchy
- any pertinent literature references
- any possible synonyms of the new term
Requests can be submitted separately if you want to track each suggestion individually. Alternatively, you can upload a file with many requests in the one submission by pressing the browse button at the bottom of the page and selecting the path to the appropriate file.
When you are satisfied, click on 'SUBMIT'.
Keeping track of your requests
Once your request is submitted there are several ways to keep track of it.
- You can receive specific emails about a single request by signing up to monitor an item. To do this, click on the summary of your request to access all its details. Near the top of the page on the right there is a grey 'Monitor' button; you can monitor and un-monitor your request item by clicking on this button. You will be sent an additional email for any changes, e.g. status change, additional comments, etc. that are made to this request item.
- Any open requests will be visible in Account in the upper right-hand corner after you have logged in. When your request has been dealt with by a curator, its status changes from 'open' to either 'closed' or 'pending'. Only open requests are visible from your personal account page.
- You can use the request ID number or any free text in the search box just above the tracker entry listing. Click 'Advanced' for more search options.
- If you want notification of new entries, modifications and comments to all requests, you should subscribe to the geneontology-term-tracker mailing list.
Browsing requests
All requests remain in SourceForge indefinitely, but by default only open suggestions are displayed. You can view suggestions with a different status by selecting one of the options from the 'Status' pulldown menu on the GO ontology requests tracker and clicking the 'Filter' button.