Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27627881›Full record

ArticleJournal of biomedical semantics2016

The Ontology of Biological and Clinical Statistics (OBCS) for standardized and reproducible statistical analysis.

Jie Zheng, Marcelline R Harris, Anna Maria Masci, Yu Lin, Alfred Hero, Barry Smith, Yongqun He

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of biomedical semantics, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
17citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

17 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. VO: The Vaccine Ontology.Scientific data · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. VO: The Vaccine Ontology.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Jie ZhengDepartment of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA. jiezheng@upenn.edu.
Marcelline R HarrisDivision of Systems Leadership and Effectiveness Science, University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
Anna Maria MasciDepartment of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke Medical Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27710, USA.
Yu LinDepartment of Microbiology and Immunology, Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
Alfred HeroDepartment of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Department of Statistics, Michigan Institute of Data Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
Barry SmithDepartment of Philosophy and National Center for Ontological Research, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14203, USA.
Yongqun HeDepartment of Microbiology and Immunology, Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA. yongqunh@med.umich.edu.ORCID 0000-0001-9189-9661

Funding

University of Buffalo Clinical and Translational Science Institute - Supplement SchulyerUL1TR001412 · NCATS · STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO · PI MURPHY, TIMOTHY F · 2015 to 2024
$33.8M
PRO: A Protein Ontology in Open Biomedical OntologiesR01GM080646 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE · PI WU, CATHY H. · 2007 to 2018
$8.9M
Validation of prognostic and pathway signatures in lethal prostate cancerU01CA157703 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI GLEAVE, MARTIN EDWIN, HALABI, SUSAN · 2011 to 2015
$2.5M
Integrative tools for protozoan parasite researchR01GM093132 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · PI STOECKERT, CHRISTIAN J. · 2010 to 2012
$1.1M
Ontology-based Information Network to Support Vaccine ResearchR01AI081062 · NIAID · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI HE, YONGQUN · 2009 to 2012
$1.1M
NCATS NIH HHS UL1 TR001412NCI NIH HHS U01 CA157703NIAID NIH HHS HHSN272201200028CNIAID NIH HHS R01 AI081062NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM080646NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM093132
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundStatistics play a critical role in biological and clinical research. However, most reports of scientific results in the published literature make it difficult for the reader to reproduce the statistical analyses performed in achieving those results because they provide inadequate documentation of the statistical tests and algorithms applied. The Ontology of Biological and Clinical Statistics (OBCS) is put forward here as a step towards solving this problem.

resultsThe terms in OBCS including 'data collection', 'data transformation in statistics', 'data visualization', 'statistical data analysis', and 'drawing a conclusion based on data', cover the major types of statistical processes used in basic biological research and clinical outcome studies. OBCS is aligned with the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) and extends the Ontology of Biomedical Investigations (OBI), an OBO (Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies) Foundry ontology supported by over 20 research communities. Currently, OBCS comprehends 878 terms, representing 20 BFO classes, 403 OBI classes, 229 OBCS specific classes, and 122 classes imported from ten other OBO ontologies. We discuss two examples illustrating how the ontology is being applied. In the first (biological) use case, we describe how OBCS was applied to represent the high throughput microarray data analysis of immunological transcriptional profiles in human subjects vaccinated with an influenza vaccine. In the second (clinical outcomes) use case, we applied OBCS to represent the processing of electronic health care data to determine the associations between hospital staffing levels and patient mortality. Our case studies were designed to show how OBCS can be used for the consistent representation of statistical analysis pipelines under two different research paradigms. Other ongoing projects using OBCS for statistical data processing are also discussed. The OBCS source code and documentation are available at: https://github.com/obcs/obcs .

conclusionsThe Ontology of Biological and Clinical Statistics (OBCS) is a community-based open source ontology in the domain of biological and clinical statistics. OBCS is a timely ontology that represents statistics-related terms and their relations in a rigorous fashion, facilitates standard data analysis and integration, and supports reproducible biological and clinical research.

Indexed as

Biological OntologiesStatistics as TopicData MiningReference StandardsReproducibility of ResultsVaccinesVaccinesBiological statisticsClinical outcomes statisticsData integrationOBCSStandardizationStatistical analysis

Identifiers

PMID27627881
PMCPMC5024438

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.