Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Sequence profiling tool

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Keep - Yomangani^talk 15:24, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sequence profiling tool

This article is well-written. However, it appears to refer to a neologism, and seems mainly to be original research. The term "sequence profiling tool" does not appear in a cursory check through PubMed abstracts, the external links on this page, or Google, with the exception of articles written or co-written by one of the editors who created this page. There does not appear to be other support for the notability of this term. The author cites BLAST and Ensembl, as examples of the term, but as far as I can tell neither of these ever use the term. Grouse 23:00, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Comment. I have indeed never heard the term in bioinformatics; the article seems to be a collection of different tools and topics grouped under a neologism (and the section on microarrays has nothing to do with the rest !) and as such, I'd be inclined to delete the page. However, it'd be a pity to loose the content, since most of it could be used on a more generic page along the line of "Bioinformatic tools". Could we integrate it somewhere else (I haven't really looked where yet) ? Schutz 23:13, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

That is a good idea. The Bioinformatics article has a Software tools section. If this article were renamed and reworked slightly it could be a "main article" for the section, called, say Bioinformatics software tools. I don't think referring to most of these things as "profiling tools" though fits with common usage. This would need to be changed Grouse 23:59, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

• Keep honestly, this is silly. "Sequence profiling" is obviously not a neologism, I don't know how adding "tool" would become one - presumably "sequence profiling software" wouldn't sound at all out of the ordinary. No objection to a move to "bioinformatics software" or somesuch though, as that would be a more appropriate title, would be consistent with existing lists of bioinformatics-related software, and would allow more room for expansion. Opabinia regalis 01:20, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Comment. I think "sequence profiling" is a neologism as well. A quick Google reveals a similar situation--many of the top hits are to either (a) copies of this article or (b) other pages by the author of this article. Grouse 08:16, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

OK, the random anons showing up to keep this is a bit strange. Try searching for "sequence profile" and you'll have better luck (though, to be fair, 3D-1D profiles aren't covered in the article, and I agree that BLAST and the like don't really fall into the category - the more common usage refers to alignment techniques). Support a move/expansion/cleanup to Bioinformatics software or similar. Opabinia regalis 14:19, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Comment. Indeed, "sequence profile" is used widely, but it means something else. In one definition[1], sequence profiles are "matrices of real values, representing the probability of amino acids at each position in a corresponding multiple sequence alignment." This has very little to do with what is discussed in this article. Grouse 14:38, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Comment I've moved the microarray stuff to its own article, since I was the one who originally added it and I can't for the life of me remember why. (Sequence profiles are not necessarily matrices, by the way; they can be coarser than PSSMs. This content is more like "sequence representation" though.) Opabinia regalis 01:55, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Excellent - I was really puzzled by this microarray stuff in there. Schutz 07:49, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

• Keep this page! I saw an article in Science (one of the premier journals) news pertinent to sequence profiling tools. Someone please provide the link to the science article! Hate to say this,but, ignorance is not bliss. — 24.164.198.135 (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.

Comment. Anonymous user does not provide any verifiable support for this statement. Anonymous user's first edit to Wikipedia. Grouse 08:16, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

• KEEP IT. The concept of sequence profiling is well known and sites like NCBI's BLAST and Ensembl offer very exhaustive services. It is also very evident in sites like Entrez and Bioinformatic Harvester which compile, process and present metadata in Bioinformatics. So while such well known services have existed and the concept known implictly, there has been very little documentation to elaborate on this. I tried to help compile a formal write up that would help readers grasp the concept as well understand the future directions of the field. In fact the field is gradually evolving to new sites/services that accomodate new kinds of data profiling for research scientists. So, while the term and article may look original, the content is well established in literature and known to scientists.

• Merging the article with any major topics is a good idea but given the length and content it will be too long to be included under ny one particular area. I have a list of possible such topics. Alternatively, splitting the content will also tend dilute the core concept.

• So I would sincerely request the article to be kept since there is ample scope for input to make it a useful piece

Nattu 03:24, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Comment. In the original summary, I reported the author's contention that BLAST and Ensembl are "sequence profiling tools." However, neither of these ever use the term "sequence profiling tool" as far as I can tell. Grouse 08:16, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

• Comment. In further discussion on the Talk:Sequence profiling tool, the author says "You have a point in that the term does not seem to appear in the bioinformatics literature, but is taken implicitly . Also, as you say, the term "profile" is used very loosely to mean different things. So I decided make a start by defining one 'profiling' concept; that of Sequence profiling tools. Some liberties were taken but the core concept holds." This is an admission that the term does not appear in bioinformatics literature, and was created by the author. Furthermore, no one has yet addressed my objection that this page is entirely original research. Grouse 08:16, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
• Possible merge or rename, but do not delete. Although the title may be an original turn of phrase, the content of this article is not original research. It describes the set of bioinformatics tools used to present sequence data and sequence relationships in informative ways - I'm not aware of a specific term that's consistently always used for the topic, so I feel the title is simply a descriptive phrase (in place of Bioinformatics tools for presentation and analysis of sequence data), rather than a neologism. Perhaps simply sequence analysis, a stub article, would be a better name for the majority of this content. I am sympathetic to the idea that most of the article deals specifically with representation and analysis ("profiling") of sequence data, a worthy subject of its own article. However, the paragraph on microarray analysis is not related to this sequence profiling theme, and could be merged elsewhere. I will think about this some more, but I strongly feel that because this article deals with a specific, notable topic supported by many high-quality outside references, it should not be deleted as original research. Dryman 23:29, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
• Merge with Sequence analysis. This summarises more or less the content of the article, without having to create a new word. Schutz 07:50, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
• Keep - It seems decent enough to keep. By far not the worst or most unnotable page either. Besides, everything that is now solid scientific belief was once original research right? I don't know enough on the subject to suggest a merge though... Spawn Man 04:06, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.