How to do Big-Data Science – Data Management for Genomics

Without appropriate training and resources, data and metadata management can be a significant barrier to investigation, collaboration, and publication. The iPlant Data Store is the backbone of iPlant's collection of data management tools, bioinformatics apps, and educational resources. Collectively, these form a free, scalable, and extensible, cyberinfrastructure to train and empower users for effective data management. The Data Store accommodates a broad range of skill levels, with web-based and command-line access, efficient data transfers, and metadata association and searching. Share individual files or datasets publicly, with specific collaborators, or manage data privately and securely. As part of a broader effort to support scientific project management and data publication, a pipeline for submissions to the NCBI SRA database has recently been added. The pipeline simplifies SRA submissions with a GUI, automated BioProject creation, iPlant-enabled data transfers, template-based metadata entry, and automatic checksum generation.