Computational Biology Resources Lack Persistence and Usability

Innovation in computational biology research is predicated on the availability of published methods and computational resources. These resources facilitate the generation of new hypotheses and observations both on the part of the creators and the scientists who use them. These methods and resources include Web servers, databases, and software, both complex and simple, that implement a specific procedure or algorithm. Usually, a resource is maintained by the laboratory in which it was initially developed. We would assert that there is a growing level of frustration among scientists who attempt to use many of these resources and find that they no longer exist or are not properly maintained. Whether you agree or disagree with this statement and the evidence that follows, we welcome your thoughts and invite you to add a Comment to this article to share your own experiences and perspectives. It is timely to visit this situation in more detail. The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is reviewing its position on software sharing, and this journal is now doing the same (the views expressed here are not necessarily those of the journal—this is a personal perspective and not an editorial). To help us gain a better understanding of the resource situation, we took on two simple experiments: first, a review of the persistence of Web servers, and, second, an experience creating a metaserver—a Web site where users can come and run a variety of methods to compare results. Here is what we found.