jes@mbio.med.upenn.edu (Joe Smith) (08/14/90)
I have tried to encourage people to submit sequences using e-mail, but
one stumbling block is mistrust of e-mail - what happens if my
submission gets lost? How do I know if they get my message? Once the
submission arrives, what if the return message with the accession
number gets lost - how would I (the submitter) know?
Being dependent on the people at the database to acknowledge receipts
only goes so far - they can always make a mistake (mail to the wrong
address, etc). Submitters here have resorted to phone calls to verify
1) receipt of submissions and 2) issuing of acc. no's. Sort of
defeats the purpose of using e-mail, doesn't it?
And finally, the questions:
What is the recommended way of dealing with this?
Is there any e-mail analogy to registered mail (even an automated
verification of delivery would help)?
And (speaking of automated) why not set up an e-mail server that
could return the status of a submission. That way the submitter
could follow the progress of h{is,er} submission and eliminate the
phone time (people & money).
This really applies to all the databases, but any answer for GenBank
should apply to the others, so I'm not cross-posting it...
<Joe
--
Joe Smith
University of Pennsylvania jes@mbio.med.upenn.edu
Dept. of Biochemistry and Biophysics (215) 898-8348
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6059pgil%histone@LANL.GOV (Paul Gilna) (08/14/90)
From GenBank's point of view, if you know that you submitted a sequence by e-mail, and you have not received an acknowledgment and an accession number within 48 hours, then you can be sure there is a problem somewhere in the chain. All submissions to gb-sub%life@lanl.gov are distributed to at least three people, and the submissions area is manned (personned) from 7.30am to 5.00pm weekdays MST. There is a restricted service over the weekends and holidays. All e-mail submissions are usually acknowledged within 12-24 hours, and we guarantee a 48hour maximum turnaround for the issuance of accession number. We are currently in a transition period with data submissions. The standard submissions form, available in hardcopy, on disk and via email is being replaced with Authorin, a PC-based program (Mac avail sept 90) which simplifies the data assembly and collection process at both ends of the submission chain. This program is available free of charge from IntelliGenetics (415-962-7364, authorin@genbank.bio.net). Once fully operational (Sept-Oct 90), the program and the support system that has been installed at LANL should satisfy the desires expressed in your message: All Authorin submission files are ascii text files which can (and should) be sent via e-mail. The submission file contains an automatically parseable transaction syntax which will update the new relational database at LANL directly and immediately. An acknowledgement, the accession number(s) and a copy of the data as they will appear on the on-line service will be returned. The total transaction time will be in the order of minutes, limited only by the network traversal times. In addition the submitted data will appear on the online services at GenBank and EMBL within 24 hours of receipt of submission. In the interim, we are still faced with dealing with the standard form. We have, as you suggested, looked into the use of an automatic response system for the submissions. We receive such a variety of types of e-mail message (here is my submission, where is my submission?, where is my accession number?, how do I submit? please send the form?), that the reply would have to be so generic as to be useless, and we would rather not add to the junk mail load! Instead we are concentrating our efforts on the automated system. However if the community felt that this was an accecptable price to pay for immediate acknowledgement we would be happy to look into this once again. We have a good record of tracking down errant email and the submissions crew are well-versed in the foibles of electronic mail. We are happy and ready to handle telephone calls which query the progress of a sequence in this interim period, and would encourage the community to make the change to Authorin as quickly as possible. Regards, Paul Gilna GenBank Biology Domain Leader GenBanl/LANL