Data Standards Guide

Below is a List of Commonly Used Data Standards that may be included in your research, separated by the discipline they align with.

For more standards, see searchable portals like Fairsharing and ISO. 

ISO 8601: Internationally accepted representation for dates and times

ISO 639: Describes languages in an internationally accepted way 

PhenX SDOH Toolkit : Standard data collection protocols that contain a core collection and two speciality collectons as it relates to social detrimants of health in clinical, behavioral, and translational research.

Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) : Research framework that aims to assess context within consideration of barriers and facillators to successful implantation; Used by many researchers and cited as a standard by some

Expert Recommendations for implementing Change (ERIC) : Protocol for implementation studies and providing consistent nomenclature, strategies, and expert recommendations; Cited by researchers

National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) : Standards set by the US EPA for different pollutants

ISO 4226:2007 : ISO Standard for air quality measurements

ISO 7708:1995 : ISO Standards for particle size fraction definitions for health related sampling

ISO 11771:2010 : ISO Standards on air quality related to the determination of time-averaged mass emissions and emission factors

ISO 9169:2006 : ISO Standards related to air quality in reference to an automatic measuring system

ISO 7168-1:1999 : ISO Standards related to air quality in reference to exchange of data (Part 1)

ISO 7168-2:1999 : ISO Standards related to air quality in reference to exchange of data (Part 2)

ISO 16890-1:2016 : ISO Standards related to air filters

National Research Council (NRC) Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, Eighth Edition (2011) : International standard on the care and housing of labaortory animals

Public Health Service (PHS) Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals : Regulatory framework for guidance for the use of live, vertebrae animals in studies funded by the PHS or HHS

USDA Animal Welfare Act (AWA) : Standards and regulations for the care and treatment of animals bred for commercial use and used within research, testing, and teaching

Animal Care and Use Committee (ACC) at UIC : Used to review all animals studies at UIC

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at UIUC : Oversight and compliance for the care and use of research and teaching animals

NIH Common Data Elements (CDE) : Used to classify data and allow for consistent data collection. Defined as a standardized and defined question with a set of allowable responses

The Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) : Standardized vocabulary of phenotypic abnormalities in human disease

The Mondo Disease Ontology (Mondo) : Standards for disease definitions

The Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) : Standards for identfying and reporting medical services

SNOMED CT : Standards for clinical terminology related to electronic health records (EHRs), clinical documentation, and reporting

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) : Global standard for diagnostic health information, currently on 11th revision

LOINC : Common standard for sets of identfiers, names, and code for identfication of health measurements, observations, and documents

Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) : HL7 international standard for exchanging health care infromation electronically

RxNorm : Standards for the normalized names of clinical drugs

Standards of Care in Diabetes by the ADA : Standards by the American Diabeteic Association (ADA) for current clinical reccomendations related to diabetic care

United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) : Standardized set of health data classes and constituent data elements for health information exchange

NIMHD Research Framework : Research framework by the NIMHD for conceptualization factors and aids in analysis related to minority health disparities research 

Searchable Databases:

Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium : Standards development organization that hopes to bring "clarity" to clinical research

The Ontology Lookup Service (OLS) : Repository of biomedical ontologies for reference

The Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus : A large biomedical thesaurus, includes files and software for heath and biomedical definitions and standards

Research Resource Identfier (RRID) : ID numbers for resources such as organisms, plasmids, antibodies, software, tools, etc.

HealthMeasures : Provides links to PROMIS, Neuro-Qol, ASCQ-Me, and NIH Toolbox assessments

The Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) : Data Standards for neuroimaging and behavioral data

Minimum Information about an fMRI Study (MlfMRI) : Data Standards for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data

MIAME : Minimum Information About a MicroArray Experiment

TFX : PCR Sequencing Standard

Flow Cytometry Standard (FCS) : Standard for the description of flow cytometry data sets

MISFISHIE : Minimum Information Specification For In Situ Hybridization and Immunihistochemistry Experiments

FASTQ : Sequencing data standard

RNAseq Data Standards : Different standards and software as well as file outputs for RNA Sequencing

ISO/TS 22692:2020 : QC metrics for DNA sequencing

MINSEQE : Minimum Information About a Next-generation Sequencing Experiment

Hyper dimensional Spectral Data File Format (HMSA) by the Microscopy Society of America : Proposed specification for a HMSA file

MSA Spectral File Format by the Microscopy Society of America : Specifications for MSA files

Infrared Spectroscopy : Standard data file format is JCAMP-DX as well as standard absorption coefficient spectra by the NIST

Raman Spectroscopy : Proposed standards

Western Blot Standard : No specific standard, but some publication considerations

Searchable Databases:

Institute of Electrics and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) : Organization that publishes and provides a searcahble database for standards

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) : Organization that publsihes standards and provides a seachable database for standards