How to Report Missing Values when Submitting a BioSample
Submitters should provide the most complete values during their BioSample submission. However, sometimes missing/null value reporting is required.
These null values can be applied to most attributes during the submission process except for organism name, strain and isolate. Organism name cannot be a null value. A valid organism name is required for all BioSample submissions. In addition, BioSamples cannot include missing values or null terms for both strain and isolate attributes. Either the strain or the isolate must have a value that is not a null term.
If you update an older BioSample, you will need to use one of the supported null term values
For all required attributes on a package except for collection date and geographic location, please use one of the following suggested null values if the information is not available:
- missing
- not applicable
- not collected
- not provided
- restricted access
For collection date and geographic location there are additional null terms that can be included as agreed to with our INSDC partners. Please use one of the following suggested null values for these two attributes:
- missing
- not applicable
- not collected
- not provided
- restricted access
- missing: control sample
- missing: sample group
- missing: synthetic construct
- missing: lab stock
- missing: third party data
- missing: data agreement established pre-2023
- missing: endangered species
- missing: human-identifiable
For more information on this effort see INSDC guidance on Missing Value Reporting.
Older BioSamples may include other null values that are no longer supported. Please do not use any of these terms when submitting a new BioSample or an update to an existing BioSample:
- ?
- n/a
- na
- none
- not available
- not determined
- not recorded
- null
- unk
- unknown
- unspecified