LabKey Server: An open source platform for scientific data integration, analysis and collaboration

BMC Bioinformatics

Table 1 Feature tradeoffs between platforms

	*Platforms*
*Features*	CAISIS	i2b2	SIMBioMS	ISA	Intermine	LabKey Server
Specimen requests	+	-	-	-	-	+
Role-based permissions	+	+	-	-	+	+
Built-in understanding of clinical study entities (e.g., participants and visits)	+	+	+	-	-	+
Management of high-throughput assay results	-	-	+	+	+	+
Wizards for collecting custom metadata for experiments	+	+	+	+	-	+
Result schemas (not just metadata) customizable through graphical interface	+	-	-	-	-	+
Broad range of customizable, scientifically-relevant properties for every column of data	-	-	-	-	-	+
Graphical tools for setting up lookups between tables	+	-	-	-	-	+
Complex queries on experimental results, not just metadata	+	+	-	-	+	+
Libraries to support programmatic data manipulation and user interface creation from external code	-	+	-	-	+	+
Built-in user interface for scripting in R	-	-	-	-	-	+
Dynamic interaction with external data sources	-	-	-	-	-	+

This table compares LabKey Server with a representative sample of open source platforms for data integration. The focus of these platforms ranges from clinical research to high-throughput experiments. Documentation for many platforms is incomplete, so we can provide only a reasonable inference of feature availability.

ISSN: 1471-2105