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GeneRIF: Gene Reference into Function

GeneRIF provides a simple mechanism to allow scientists to add to the functional annotation of genes described in Gene. For a GeneRIF submission to be processed, a valid Gene ID must exist for the specific gene, or the Gene staff must have assigned an overall Gene ID to the species. The latter case is implemented via records in Gene with the symbol NEWENTRY. Once the Gene ID is identified, only three types of information are required to complete a submission:

  1. a concise phrase describing a function or functions (less than 425 characters in length, the title of the paper will not be accepted)
  2. a published paper describing that function, implemented by supplying the PubMed ID of a citation in PubMed
  3. a valid e-mail address (which will remain confidential).

GeneRIFs are intended to facilitate access to publications documenting experiments that add to our understanding of a gene and its function. Reports based solely on computational analyses are not in scope. Sample GeneRIFs are provided here

To submit a new GeneRIF, or corrections to an existing GeneRIF, please use the Help Desk form.

The steps to submit a new GeneRIF from the Gene report page:

  1. Query PubMed to identify the PubMed ID for the reference.
  2. Query Gene to find the record for the gene.
  3. Display the desired gene's report page by selecting that record from the query results list.
  4. Use the New GeneRIF link to open a Help Desk form.
  5. Add text in the boxes for 'Subject', 'First Name', 'Last Name' and 'Email Address'.
  6. Add text in the box for 'Description', including GeneID, PMID, and proposed RIF (a concise phrase describing the function of the gene or its protein product).
  7. Press Submit.

Each submission is acknowledged using the e-mail address that was entered. The text of the GeneRIF is reviewed for inappropriate content and typographical errors, and may be edited for clarity.

After review, newly-submitted GeneRIFs are included as soon as possible in the Bibliography section of the Gene report page. GeneRIFs are also available via FTP at ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/gene/GeneRIF/.

Statistics summarizing GeneRIF submissions, affected Gene records, and publications are available here.

NOTE: Most of the GeneRIFs available through Gene are provided by the staff of the National Library of Medicine's Index Section, who have advanced degrees in the life sciences.