NBO-Q

NBO-Q

Harmonize the description of light microscopy hardware, acquisition settings, and quality-control metrics in order to enhance image quality, reproducibility, and to fulfill the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles.​

This image was produced in 2021 by Thao Do at the Allen Institute of Cell Science, and appeared on the cover of the Nature Methods Focus Issue on Reporting and reproducibility in microscopy
Microscopy metadata is essential for image data QC, interpretation, analysis and sharing.

Purpose

  • Promote the harmonized generation and pre-publication management of image datasets from the ground up.
  • Facilitate the deposition of microscopy datasets to public image data repositories (e.g., BioImage Archive, OME-Image Data Resource, RIKEN SSBD, Brain Image Library, etc.).
  • Facilitate data reuse and the extraction of quantitative information from image data using advanced bioimage analysis techniques, including AI/ML.
  • Define the light-microscopy implementation of the Image Acquisition module of the Recommended Metadata for Biological Images (REMBI) guidelines.

Deliverables

  • A flexible and adaptable community-agreed vocabulary to describe microscopy hardware, image acquisition settings, and their associated quality control measurements.

  • A metadata model to structure the vocabulary and organize the data.

  • A set of machine-actionable representations of the metadata model leveraging the latest Linked Data technology.

Getting started

Imaging Scientists

Developers

  • Familiarize yourself with the structure of the model on GitHub
  • Learn about how you can use the specifications for your application by following the Micro-Meta App example

NBO-Q Specifications

How to join and access

Specifications

Become a member of QUAREP-LiMi WG7 (Metadata)

Open an issue on GitHub to ask a question or propose a change

Become a contributor to the GitHub repository

Governance

Summary of current processes and link to Best-Practices document or page describing the process in detail

Learn more about how NBO-Q was developed to update the Open Microscopy Environment (OME) Data Model.