Toward a minimal information reporting standard about new cell types

The classification of cell diversity using ontologies is a core step for managing biomedical data. While technical tools to represent knowledge about cell types are available, there is still a gap between classes mentioned in biomedical literature and what has been cataloged by the Cell Ontology. Here we introduce the Minimal Information Reporting About a CelL (MIRACL) standard to bridge the gap between natural language reports and formal ontologies. The standard currently outlines four free-text fields (label, diagnostic description, reference, and additional information) and three formal fields (scientific taxon, UBERON anatomical structure, and Cell Ontology superclass). The standard is open to contributors.