In response to a request from the Microarray Gene Expression Data Society (MGED), the journals Nature, Cell, and The Lancet have adopted MGED's guidelines for submitting microarray expression data for publication. MGED developed the guidelines known as MIAME (Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment) to facilitate the interpretation and verification of microarray results.

"Harried editors can rejoice that, at last, the community is taming the unruly beast that is microarray information," Nature editors wrote of the MIAME standard in a recent issue of the journal (419:232).

According to Cell editor, Vivian Siegel, the challenge for journals has been to figure out exactly what aspects of the data needed to be provided to their readers. "We were very much in the dark about just what you need to make the work useful to other people. That's where the MIAME guidelines have been really helpful," Siegel told The Scientist.

MIAME...