Annotation guidelines

General guidelines

ENVO can be used to annotate data or metadata records in many ways. Across all of these, there are a few important things to keep in mind

Every annotation should contain either

  • The full IRI of the term used or
  • The CURIE form of the term's identifier

For example, if you're adding the ENVO term "tropical moist broadleaf forest biome" to your data or metadata, be sure to include either

Labels on terms can change, but the IRI and identifier are locked to the definition / semantics of the term.

Community- and application-specific guidelines

If your community has specific guidelines for annotating records with ontologies, or if you'd like us to help you develop them, let us know and we'll list them here, posting guidance on our wiki.

Here's an example from the Genomic Standards Consortium, providing guidance on how to use ENVO in their MIxS specification.