nf-core / nf-core/tools

New tool: Required publication references

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command line tools
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Description

It would be nice to make it easier for people to know what should be referenced if they use a pipeline in a manuscript. For example, nf-core references <pipeline-name> could return a list of the references that you need to add into your paper. (alt names: nf-core refs, nf-core bib..?)

Different flags could give different output formats, but perhaps the default could be prose text. For example:

Data was processed using nf-core/rnaseq [pipeline DOI, nf-core paper]. This pipeline is built using nextflow [nextflow paper] and uses the following tools: FastQC (Quality control of raw data) [ref], TrimGalore! (Trimming of adapter sequence contamination) [ref], STAR (Alignment of RNA-seq reads to the reference genome) [ref] …etc

Need to think about where and how to capture this information in the pipeline files. For example, a simple YAML file could work nicely:

- tools:
    - fastqc:
        - name: FastQC
        - description: Quality control of raw data
        - ref: https://www.bioinformatics.babraham.ac.uk/projects/fastqc/
    - trimgalore:
        - name: Trim Galore!
        - description: Trimming of adapter sequence contamination
        - ref:
            - https://www.bioinformatics.babraham.ac.uk/projects/trim_galore/
            - 10.14806/ej.17.1.200
    - star:
        - name: STAR
        - description: Alignment of RNA-seq reads to the reference genome
        - ref: 10.1093/bioinformatics/bts635

Requirements:

  • Should handle either DOI or URL (DOI preferable where available)
  • Should be able to handle multiple references per tool
    • Alternatively, force one per tool and instead list multiple tools? eg. have Cutadapt in its own entry above.
  • Name and reference should be mandatory
  • Additional text per tool should be as short as possible

Output options could be:

  • List of references alone
  • List of tool names and references
  • Full prose text
  • Prose text without additional tool descriptions
  • Option to give references in different formats, with a DOI lookup

The nextflow and nf-core references can be hardcoded. The workflow DOI can be lifted from README.md I guess. Or could potentially be added as a new workflow.metadata variable?

Thoughts / feedback?

Phil

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Research direction

Start with the requirements in this issue and the workflow DOI discussion in README.md; compare the proposed nf-core references command with the possible workflow.metadata option. Done means a settled design and implementation covering DOI or URL references, multiple references, required names, output formats, and DOI lookup.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
bioinformatics, cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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