Molecular Biology Databases Published in Nucleic Acids Research between 1991-2016

This dataset was developed to create a census of sufficiently documented molecular biology databases to answer several preliminary research questions. Articles published in the annual Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) “Database Issues” were used to identify a population of databases for study. Namely, the questions addressed herein include: 1) what is the historical rate of database proliferation versus rate of database attrition?, 2) to what extent do citations indicate persistence?, and 3) are databases under active maintenance and does evidence of maintenance likewise correlate to citation? An overarching goal of this study is to provide the ability to identify subsets of databases for further analysis, both as presented within this study and through subsequent use of this openly released dataset.

本数据集旨在构建一个详实的中文学术生物数据库目录，以解答一系列初步的研究问题。本研究采用年度《核酸酸研究》（Nucleic Acids Research，简称NAR）杂志的“数据库问题”专栏发表的论文，以识别用于研究的数据库群体。具体而言，本研究所探讨的问题包括：1）数据库的历史增长速率与消亡速率之间的对比如何？2）引用情况在多大程度上反映了数据库的持续性？3）数据库是否处于活跃维护状态，以及维护的证据是否与引用情况存在相关性？本研究的总体目标是提供一种能力，即识别数据库的子集以进行进一步分析，这不仅包括本研究的呈现，还包括后续对该公开发布数据集的使用。