November 15, 2017 (Vol. 37, No. 20)
URL:
www.biostars.org
Rating:
Strong Points: Large collection of answered questions, tutorials, and tools
Weak Points: None
Summary:
With the prevalence of large biological datasets, biologists can hardly avoid bioinformatics (even if they’d like to). Biostars is a wonderful resource for researchers working in bioinformatics, computational genomics, or biological data analysis—especially for those who are new to the fields. The website primarily consists of threads in which members of the community pose questions and answers. Structured similarly to other discussion-based websites, Biostars allows users to “upvote” specific threads. Users can sort the threads by date, view only the open threads, or select content relevant to specific applications like RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, and SNP analysis. In addition, users can search all content on the site by keyword. In addition to the discussion threads, the website also includes a number of tutorials and tools, making it even easier for researchers to get going with their analyses.