What skills do biocurators need?
To put it simply, biocurators collect scientific data, verify and validate the information collected, add value by structuring it in a logical, consistent and relevant manner and integrate it into databases.
Biocuration helps make data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR); it places data into context, makes it more interoperable, and adds unique identifiers, licences, and structured descriptions alongside other appropriate metadata (Holinski et al., 2020).
In order to do these tasks successfully biocuators need a range of skills.
In an ELIXIR survey, launched in 2019, computational skills were highlighted to be essential for a successful biocuration career (Holinski et al., 2020), such as:
- programming and scripting
- extracting data from literature
Other important skills that were mentioned include:
- biological knowledge
- attention to detail
- patience
- communication
- curiosity
- document writing
Therefore, besides scientific and biocuration expertise, biocurators possess and develop many transferable skills which are highly valued by employers.
Who do biocurators work with?
Communication is a key skill that was mentioned above as biocurators may work with people in many different other roles, such as:
- Other biocurators
- Research scientists and students
- Scientists in industry
- Bioinformaticians
- Software developers
- User experience experts and designers
Where do biocurators work?
There are many biocurators who work for publicly available data resources that you may be familiar with, such as those provided by EMBL-EBI, however there are also many biocurators that work in industry, although sometimes their roles have a different name.
Learn more about biocuration in industry on the next page.