ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of current and past efforts in data sharing and data standardization in metabolomics. Reproducibility for metabolomics results is challenging and the topic is vast. Standardization efforts started in 2004 with the Architecture for Metabolomics consortium followed closely by the Standard Metabolic Reporting Structure initiative. A wide range of different mass spectrometers is used in metabolomics each with a unique design, specifications, performance and data acquisition system. The binary data file formats produced by each mass spectrometer vendor also have a different data type, usually, proprietary, divers and nontransparent making it difficult for bioinformatician to access. Identification of metabolites remains one of the bottlenecks in data analysis, as only limited structural information can be obtained from the features particularly in untargeted metabolomics.
