Persistence and availability of Web services in computational biology.
We have conducted a study on the long-term availability of bioinformatics Web services: an observation of 927 Web services published in the annual Nucleic Acids Research Web Server Issues between 2003 and 2009. We found that 72% of Web sites are still available at the published addresses, only 9% of...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2011-01-01
|
| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3178567?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1811269700779245568 |
|---|---|
| author | Sebastian J Schultheiss Marc-Christian Münch Gergana D Andreeva Gunnar Rätsch |
| author_facet | Sebastian J Schultheiss Marc-Christian Münch Gergana D Andreeva Gunnar Rätsch |
| author_sort | Sebastian J Schultheiss |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We have conducted a study on the long-term availability of bioinformatics Web services: an observation of 927 Web services published in the annual Nucleic Acids Research Web Server Issues between 2003 and 2009. We found that 72% of Web sites are still available at the published addresses, only 9% of services are completely unavailable. Older addresses often redirect to new pages. We checked the functionality of all available services: for 33%, we could not test functionality because there was no example data or a related problem; 13% were truly no longer working as expected; we could positively confirm functionality only for 45% of all services. Additionally, we conducted a survey among 872 Web Server Issue corresponding authors; 274 replied. 78% of all respondents indicate their services have been developed solely by students and researchers without a permanent position. Consequently, these services are in danger of falling into disrepair after the original developers move to another institution, and indeed, for 24% of services, there is no plan for maintenance, according to the respondents. We introduce a Web service quality scoring system that correlates with the number of citations: services with a high score are cited 1.8 times more often than low-scoring services. We have identified key characteristics that are predictive of a service's survival, providing reviewers, editors, and Web service developers with the means to assess or improve Web services. A Web service conforming to these criteria receives more citations and provides more reliable service for its users. The most effective way of ensuring continued access to a service is a persistent Web address, offered either by the publishing journal, or created on the authors' own initiative, for example at http://bioweb.me. The community would benefit the most from a policy requiring any source code needed to reproduce results to be deposited in a public repository. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T21:46:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b7bbe65133b5490dafdd9ed1a4a92428 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T21:46:48Z |
| publishDate | 2011-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-b7bbe65133b5490dafdd9ed1a4a924282022-12-22T03:15:36ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032011-01-0169e2491410.1371/journal.pone.0024914Persistence and availability of Web services in computational biology.Sebastian J SchultheissMarc-Christian MünchGergana D AndreevaGunnar RätschWe have conducted a study on the long-term availability of bioinformatics Web services: an observation of 927 Web services published in the annual Nucleic Acids Research Web Server Issues between 2003 and 2009. We found that 72% of Web sites are still available at the published addresses, only 9% of services are completely unavailable. Older addresses often redirect to new pages. We checked the functionality of all available services: for 33%, we could not test functionality because there was no example data or a related problem; 13% were truly no longer working as expected; we could positively confirm functionality only for 45% of all services. Additionally, we conducted a survey among 872 Web Server Issue corresponding authors; 274 replied. 78% of all respondents indicate their services have been developed solely by students and researchers without a permanent position. Consequently, these services are in danger of falling into disrepair after the original developers move to another institution, and indeed, for 24% of services, there is no plan for maintenance, according to the respondents. We introduce a Web service quality scoring system that correlates with the number of citations: services with a high score are cited 1.8 times more often than low-scoring services. We have identified key characteristics that are predictive of a service's survival, providing reviewers, editors, and Web service developers with the means to assess or improve Web services. A Web service conforming to these criteria receives more citations and provides more reliable service for its users. The most effective way of ensuring continued access to a service is a persistent Web address, offered either by the publishing journal, or created on the authors' own initiative, for example at http://bioweb.me. The community would benefit the most from a policy requiring any source code needed to reproduce results to be deposited in a public repository.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3178567?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Sebastian J Schultheiss Marc-Christian Münch Gergana D Andreeva Gunnar Rätsch Persistence and availability of Web services in computational biology. PLoS ONE |
| title | Persistence and availability of Web services in computational biology. |
| title_full | Persistence and availability of Web services in computational biology. |
| title_fullStr | Persistence and availability of Web services in computational biology. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Persistence and availability of Web services in computational biology. |
| title_short | Persistence and availability of Web services in computational biology. |
| title_sort | persistence and availability of web services in computational biology |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3178567?pdf=render |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sebastianjschultheiss persistenceandavailabilityofwebservicesincomputationalbiology AT marcchristianmunch persistenceandavailabilityofwebservicesincomputationalbiology AT gerganadandreeva persistenceandavailabilityofwebservicesincomputationalbiology AT gunnarratsch persistenceandavailabilityofwebservicesincomputationalbiology |