Forum:Terms (like atlas, map, and archive) on database description

Question

[bioinformaticsBoy]

Current bioinformatics databases adopt multiple terms to describe databases. For instance,

• Human Cell Atlas
• Sequence Read Archive
• Gene Expression Omnibus
• ENCODE: Encyclopedia of DNA Elements
• Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer
• Connectivity Map (CMap)

How to understand the differences among terms in bold?

[GenoMax]

These are likely creative choices people make when they name the databases. One wants a catchy name that would be easy to remember.

[bioinformaticsBoy]

So they have no big differences in describing the data per se?

[GenoMax]

There can be big differences. They are clearly storing different data types but the precise nature of what is being stored may not be apparent just going on the name (at least not always).

[bioinformaticsBoy]

Thank you for your reply. When I plan to launch a new database, how to choose words among them? Based on your previous comments, I can not clearly understand the differences as a non-native English speaker.