The August editorial in Nature Biotechnology, ‘Time for leadership’ (Nat. Biotechnol. 25, 821; 2007) describes how the example set by leading proteomics laboratories will be a major factor in determining the successful implementation of new reporting guidelines in the wider community.

The August issue of the journal includes two perspectives that propose reporting guidelines for proteomics and molecular-interaction data sets (p. 887 and p. 894). The “minimum information about a proteomics experiment” (MIAPE) and an associated module on molecular interaction experiments (MIMIx) were developed by the Proteomics Standards Initiative of the Human Proteome Organization with the aim of standardizing the reporting of proteomics research.

The editorial goes on to state: “Whether Nature Biotechnology ultimately elects to require compliance with the MIAPE guidelines will depend on their reception by the scientific community. This March, we began recommending (not requiring) that proteomics and molecular-interaction data sets be deposited in a public repository before the associated manuscript is submitted to this journal ”https://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v25/n3/full/nbt0307-262b.html">(Nat. Biotechnol. 25, 262, 2007). But we would not consider enforcing the MIAPE guidelines until such time as the proteomics community has reached a consensus that the benefits of compliance outweigh the burden.

Before this can happen, at least two critical pieces of infrastructure must be in place. First and foremost, appropriate software tools must be developed and made freely available to all. Second, databases must improve their capabilities for transferring and storing MIAPE-compliant data sets."

We welcome your comments as the Nature journals further develop their policies in this area.