The STRING database in 2021: customizable protein–protein networks, and functional characterization of user-uploaded gene/measurement sets is a dataset published in Nucleic Acids Research (2020). On theSindex it has a DataRank of 11.6, placing it in the top 18% of the data-sharing corpus. It has been cited 8,484 times, with 194 citing works in its 1-hop citation network. Its calibrated FAIR score is 58/100.
Cellular life depends on a complex web of functional associations between biomolecules. Among these associations, protein-protein interactions are particularly important due to their versatility, specificity and adaptability. The STRING database aims to integrate all known and predicted associations between proteins, including both physical interactions as well as functional associations. To achieve this, STRING collects and scores evidence from a number of sources: (i) automated text mining of the scientific literature, (ii) databases of interaction experiments and annotated complexes/pathways, (iii) computational interaction predictions from co-expression and from conserved genomic context and (iv) systematic transfers of interaction evidence from one organism to another. STRING aims for wide coverage; the upcoming version 11.5 of the resource will contain more than 14 000 organisms. In this update paper, we describe changes to the text-mining system, a new scoring-mode for physical interactions, as well as extensive user interface features for customizing, extending and sharing protein networks. In addition, we describe how to query STRING with genome-wide, experimental data, including the automated detection of enriched functionalities and potential biases in the user's query data. The STRING resource is available online, at https://string-db.org/.
FAIR checklist signals are shown for context only and do not affect DataRank scoring.
Calibrated FAIR score — a parallel quality metric, independent of the DataRank citation score. See the full evaluation →
Base Score Contribution
1.4
From this paper's citation signal
Citation Network Contribution
10.3
From 194 citing papers with measurable signal
Ranked by citation count — the same ordering the engine uses when summing log1p(Cq) over citers.
DataRank blends this paper's own citation count with the influence of the papers that cite it. Here, roughly 12% comes from its base citations and 88% from the citation network (194 citing papers contributed measurable signal).
Citers are pulled from OpenAlex sorted by cited_by_count:descand capped per paper, so when the cap binds we keep the highest-signal references and the score is reproducible across reruns.
Click a node to highlight its connections. Use scroll to zoom. Drag to pan.