Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. I wish to get involved with FAANG activites but there seems that a lot is going on. How can I get started?
2. I found a dataset publically available on ENA site (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/), but fail to find any publication associated with it. Can I download the dataset and do some analysis? It is not clear to me that according to the Data Sharing Statement of FAANG, we can or cannot use this data?
3. I wish to collaborate with someone in my field for a grant application, is there a way to find those who are also interested and how we can get connected?
4. Can I get a support letter from FAANG for my grant application? What do I need in order to get one?
5. Are FAANG members required to submit their sequences with FAANG labeled as affiliation of some sort? How to identify submitted data from FAANG projects?
6. How can I access FAANG data?
   Also refer to FAANG data portal FAQ for questions about data submissions and retrieval.

   • How do I submit sample and experimental data to FAANG data portal?
   • How to access FAANG data?
   • Is there a way to access data programmatically?

Q: I wish to get involved with FAANG activites but there seems that a lot
   is going on.  How can I get started?

A: Please refer to our Steps to get involved page to find a chip in point.
   In addition:
   - to find a contact point from the current active project leaders: 
   - to see currently funded projects for more information: 



Q: I found a dataset publically available on ENA site, but fail to find any
   publication associated with it.  Can I download the dataset and do
   some analysis?  It is not clear to me that according to the Data Sharing
   Statement of FAANG, we can or cannot use this data?

A: I suppose as long as you follow the guidelines set forth in The FAANG
   Data Sharing Statement (http://www.faang.org/data-share-principle) cited
   by the project abstract (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena), you can download and
   analyze the data and cite the data source in related publications. Consult
   your advisor if there are items not articulated clearly; If there are
   situations not well described in the FAANG Data Sharing Statement, please
   have your advisor contact the authors of the data to get a consent.

   In addition, I would suggest you contact the submitters of the data for
   more details in terms of the use of the data and to potentially
   collaborate. 



Q: I wish to collaborate with someone in my field for a grant application,
   is there a way to find those who are also interested and how we can get
   connected?

A: Yes. On our Funding Oppotunities page, there are attached message boards
   for members to post messages and proposed application title and contact
   information. This is designed to help people to get into group actions
   when they get in touch off the line.



Q: Can I get a support letter from FAANG for my grant application?  What do
   I need in order to get one?

A: The Steering Committee Co-Chairs can provide a Letter of Support (LOS),
   provided that your project is willing to state that the data will be
   made publically available per the FAANG Data Sharing Statement. The
   expectation is that the proposed Principal Investigator/Director or
   co-PI/PD is a member of FAANG, and has agreed to these principles
   already. We further require that FAANG-supported projects to submit
   data to BioSamples in accordance with current FAANG Metadata standards,
   and cooperate with the FAANG Data Coordination Centre, as appropriate.
   Please see draft letters for additional details.



Q: Are FAANG members required to submit their sequences with FAANG labeled
   as affiliation of some sort?  How to identify submitted data from FAANG
   projects?

A: FAANG members are required to follow the agreements of the FAANG data
   sharing statement (http://www.faang.org/data-share-principle), and should
   submit their data to the public archives following the FAANG submission
   instructions. Following these instructions will ensure that submitted data
   will be correctly identified, meet the required metadata standards and
   indexed in the FAANG Data Portal. 

   Once the data is available through a public archive, it will normally be
   indexed within 24 hours. If there are particular studies that people
   believe should be available through the FAANG data portal but are not
   there, please contact faang-dcc@ebi.ac.uk with the accession numbers to
   report it for investigation.



Q: How can I access FAANG data?

A: FAANG data are processed and archived at FAANG Data Portal
   (https://data.faang.org).

   ALERT: Remember, these data are public because someone submitted them
   to the data portal, often ahead of publication. Please read the FAANG
   Principles of data sharing (https://www.faang.org/data-share-principle),
   which are on the FAANG website and also on the data portal site, to
   understand and observe your obligations.

   If you HAVE READ and AGREED to above principals: Check:  Yes I agree.
   
 See the answer.
   

  

   The data access points are hyper-linked from the key words in the
   paragraphs of "Using this site" descriptions, such as Organisms,
   Specimens, Dataset, Files, as illustrated in this screen shot:

   

   The data portal site is designed to use filters for users to browse
   into the data with proper focus.  Users can easily select or de-select
   filters to change the scope through which data are listed (as shown in
   the screen shot below).

   

   There is also a select and filter (search) window if users have
   specific data scope.