Update notifications for the BioCyc collection of databases

Abstract

We describe the BioCyc update notifications service, a new mechanism to keep researchers informed of the latest developments in their areas of interest. BioCyc.org combines databases for 9,300 sequenced organisms that integrate genome, metabolic pathway, and regulatory information with extensive bioinformatics tools. Users of the BioCyc website can register their specific areas of interest online by specifying a set of genes, pathways and/or Gene Ontology terms. Then, when significant new information becomes available in a BioCyc database in a user’s interest areas (usually due to curation), an email notification is sent to the user. The BioCyc ontology is leveraged to identify changes that are both relevant to a user’s specified interests and worthy of notification. Every effort is made to ensure that the resulting email text is both concise and informative, with links to relevant BioCyc pages.