Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29358745›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2018

Gene annotation bias impedes biomedical research.

Winston A Haynes, Aurelie Tomczak, Purvesh Khatri

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 113 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
113citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–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

113 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. The multi-omics fallacy in microbiome science.PLoS computational biology · 2026
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. A practical guide to functional enrichment analysis.Frontiers in bioinformatics · 2026
    Article
  12. Review
  13. Article
  14. Computational function prediction of bacteria and phage proteins.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025
    Review
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. A workflow for human health hazard evaluation using transcriptomic data and Key Characteristics-based gene sets.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2025
    Article
  20. Article

53 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

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

3 authors.

Winston A HaynesStanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2376-0630
Aurelie TomczakStanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
Purvesh KhatriStanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA. pkhatri@stanford.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4143-4708

Funding

Using a tonsil organoid system to probe conditions for the induction of protective antibody and T cell responses to influenza.U19AI057229 · NIAID · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI Mark Morris Davis · 2003 to 2026
$88.5M
Translational Incubator CoreU19AI109662 · NIAID · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI GLENN, JEFFREY S · 2014 to 2019
$28.6M
POSTDOCTORAL TRAINING IN MEDICAL INFORMATION SCIENCEST15LM007033 · NLM · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI SYLVIA KATINA PLEVRITIS · 1985 to 2026
$25.5M
Integrative Omics as a Discovery Tool for Pulmonary HypertensionR01HL122887 · NHLBI · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI NICOLLS, MARK ROBERT, RABINOVITCH, MARLENE · 2015 to 2018
$4.1M
NHLBI NIH HHS R01 HL122887NIAID NIH HHS U19 AI057229NIAID NIH HHS U19 AI109662NLM NIH HHS T15 LM007033
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We found tremendous inequality across gene and protein annotation resources. We observed that this bias leads biomedical researchers to focus on richly annotated genes instead of those with the strongest molecular data. We advocate that researchers reduce these biases by pursuing data-driven hypotheses.

Indexed as

BiasBiomedical ResearchComputational BiologyHumansMolecular Sequence Annotation

Identifiers

PMID29358745
PMCPMC5778030

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.