How to: Biositemaps

The National Centers for Systems Biology use a system known as Biositemaps to disseminate their resources. The system was created by the National Centers for Biomedical Computing.

Overview

We want to make the resources that we create as accessible as possible to the world beyond our Centers. Biositemaps enables us to display our resource information in a searchable and organized manner. We list our resource information in a .rdf file which we each host on our Centers’ servers. The location of this .rdf file is registered with Biositemaps which enables it to be automatically displayed in searchable databases including:

National Centers for Systems Biology Portal searchable database
Resource Discovery System – alongside resource information from other types of biomedical research centers

Detailed Instructions

Biositemaps Cheat Sheet (.doc)

Biositemaps Quick Getting Started Guide (PDF)
These are instructions on how to create a Biositemap .rdf file and post it onto your organization’s web site. As described in the instructions, this file will enable you to publish information on the Internet about useful biomedical resources (tools, data, software, material, and services) that your organization has developed. This file can be picked up and read by a number of emerging search and query engines, the generic Biositemaps Search Tool, or the more sophisticated Resource Discovery System (RDS), for example.

Submission to Portal searchable database

Please send Jeremy Muhlich (jeremy_muhlich@hms.harvard.edu) the URL of your .rdf file so that he can include it in the Portal searchable database.