Ensembl 2026 is a dataset published in Nucleic Acids Research (2025). On theSindex it has a DataRank of 0.489, placing it in the top 39.1% of the data-sharing corpus. It has been cited 21 times, with 19 citing works in its 1-hop citation network. Its calibrated FAIR score is 75/100.
Ranks in the top 39% for downstream scientific impact
DataRank reads this dataset's downstream impact straight off the citation graph — no black box, no proprietary weighting. How is this computed?
FAIR checklist signals are shown for context only and do not affect DataRank scoring.
Full FAIR picture · advisory
The headline score is computed from the scored criteria — the fact-shaped checks (a repository, an accession, a licence) that two independent models agree on. The advisory criteria below are real FAIR guidance but rest on judgment calls that models read differently, so they inform without moving the number.
“All Ensembl data is made available without restriction from our main website ( https://www.ensembl.org )”
The paper gives a web URL (https://www.ensembl.org) for the data, which is not a persistent identifier scheme. [majority verdict 'partial' (3/5 passes agreed)]
RDA-F1-01D — FAIR Data Maturity Model: 'Data is identified by a persistent identifier' (priorit · RDA-F1-02D — FAIR Data Maturity Model: 'Data is identified by a globally unique identifier' · FsF-F1-02D — F-UJI/FAIRsFAIR: 'Data is assigned a persistent identifier'
“All Ensembl data is made available without restriction from our main website ( https://www.ensembl.org )”
Ensembl is named as the holder of the data; it is a recognised data repository. [majority verdict 'yes' (3/5 passes agreed)]
RDA-F4-01M — FAIR Data Maturity Model: metadata is offered so it can be harvested and indexed ( · NIH DMS Policy Element 4 (NOT-OD-21-014) — name the repository where data will be archived · NSTC Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories (2022) — 'Long-Term Sustainability', 'Reten
No identifier for the dataset appears in the reference list or body text; the data are not cited as a bibliographic entry. [majority verdict 'no' (3/5 passes agreed)]
FORCE11 Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles (2014) — data should be cited as a first- · RDA-F3-01M — metadata clearly and explicitly includes the identifier of the data it describes · FsF-F3-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata includes the identifier of the data it describes'
Advisory · not in the published score
“All Ensembl data is made available without restriction from our main website ( https://www.ensembl.org ), Ensembl Beta ( https://beta.ensembl.org ) and portals ( https://plants.ensembl.org , https://metazoa.ensembl.org , https://fungi.ensembl.org , https://protists.ensembl.org , https://bacteria.ensembl.org , https://grch37.ensembl.org , https://covid-19.ensembl.org ). Data is also available for bulk access via our FTP site ( https://ftp.ensembl.org ) and programmatically ( https://rest.ensembl.org , https://beta.ensembl.org/data/graphql ).”
The statement points to a repository (Ensembl) with a persistent link, fulfilling Colavizza category 3. [majority verdict 'yes' (3/5 passes agreed)]
Colavizza, Hrynaszkiewicz, Staden, Whitaker & McGillivray (2020), 'The citation advantage of li · Springer Nature research data policy — Data Availability Statements: standard statement templat · RDA-F3-01M — metadata clearly and explicitly includes the identifier of the data it describes
“We annotate genes and transcripts, small- and large-scale genetic variation, genome regulatory elements, and comparative genomics (orthology and whole-genome alignments).”
The dataset content is described in running prose without an itemised inventory or section. [majority verdict 'partial' (3/5 passes agreed)]
RDA-F2-01M — 'Rich metadata is provided to allow discovery' (priority Essential) · FsF-F2-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata includes descriptive core elements to support data findability' · FsF-R1-01MD — F-UJI: 'Metadata specifies the content of the data'
“All Ensembl data is made available without restriction from our main website ( https://www.ensembl.org )”
The text states the data are available without restriction, offering a direct route with no precondition. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]
RDA-A1.1-01D — 'Data is accessible through a free access protocol' · FsF-A1-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata contains access level and access conditions of the data' · NSTC Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories (2022) — 'Free and Easy Access'
Advisory · not in the published score
“All Ensembl data is made available without restriction from our main website ( https://www.ensembl.org )”
The paper explicitly labels the data as available without restriction, which is an access-level label equivalent to open access. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]
FsF-A1-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata contains access level and access conditions of the data' · RDA-A1-01M — metadata contains information to enable the user to get access to the data · COAR Controlled Vocabularies — Access Rights v1.0 (open / embargoed / restricted / metadata-onl
The data are not sensitive and no gatekeeper is named; the paper does not address access restrictions for human-subject data.
NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy (NOT-OD-14-124) — controlled-access via a Data Access Committee · RDA-A1.2-01D — 'Data is accessible through an access protocol that supports authentication and · NIH DMS Policy Element 5 (NOT-OD-21-014) — Access, Distribution, or Reuse Considerations (conse
“All Ensembl data is made available without restriction from our main website”
The text states availability timing (now) but does not specify how long data persist. [majority verdict 'partial' (3/5 passes agreed)]
NIH DMS Plan Element 4 (NOT-OD-21-014) — Data Preservation, Access, and Associated Timelines · NSTC Desirable Characteristics (2022), Organizational Infrastructure: 'Retention Policy' · RDA-A2-01M — 'Metadata is guaranteed to remain available after data is no longer available'
“GENCODE Primary is the default annotation for both human GRCh38 and mouse GRCm39 in our analysis and visualization tools, including Ensembl VEP, and is flagged in our GFF3 files”
The paper names GFF3, an open, community-standard file format for genomic annotation data. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]
FsF-R1.3-02D — F-UJI: 'Data is available in a file format recommended by the target research co · RDA-R1.3-02D — data is expressed in a machine-understandable community standard · RDA-I1-01D — data uses a knowledge representation expressed in a standardised format
Advisory · not in the published score
“GENCODE Primary is the default annotation for both human GRCh38 and mouse GRCm39”
The paper names GENCODE, a community-standard annotation set registered in FAIRsharing, as applied to the data. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]
RDA-R1.3-01M — 'Metadata complies with a community standard' (priority Essential) · RDA-R1.3-01D — 'Data complies with a community standard' · RDA-I2-01M — '(Meta)data use vocabularies that follow FAIR principles'
The paper names external resources (dbSNP, gnomAD, ClinVar) but provides no identifiers (accessions, DOIs, RRIDs) for them in the body text. [majority verdict 'no' (3/5 passes agreed)]
RDA-I3-01M — '(meta)data include references to other (meta)data' · RDA-I3-03M — 'metadata includes qualified references to other metadata' · FsF-I3-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata includes links between the data and its related entities'
“All Ensembl data are made available under the EMBL-EBI Terms of Use”
The paper names a terms-of-use document for the data, which is not an SPDX-listed open license.
RDA-R1.1-01M — 'Metadata includes information about the licence under which the data can be reu · RDA-R1.1-02M — 'Metadata refers to a standard reuse licence' · RDA-R1.1-03M — 'Metadata refers to a machine-understandable reuse licence'
“Ensembl release 116 (Q1-2026) will be the last release on the current platform.”
The paper provides a version token ('release 116') for the data snapshot.
DataCite Metadata Schema 4.6 — the 'Version' property · RDA-R1.2-01M — provenance information (which version was used is provenance) · NSTC Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories (2022) — 'Provenance', 'Retention Policy'
“Ensembl software is available from GitHub ( https://github.com/Ensembl and https://github.com/EnsemblGenomes )”
A machine-resolvable locator (GitHub URL) is given for the code. [majority verdict 'yes' (3/5 passes agreed)]
NIH DMS Policy Element 2 (NOT-OD-21-014) — 'Related Tools, Software and/or Code' · FAIR4RS Principles v1.0 (Chue Hong et al., 2022; RDA/FORCE11/ReSA) — FAIR Principles for Resear · FORCE11 Software Citation Principles (Smith, Katz & Niemeyer, 2016, PeerJ CS 2:e86)
“Ensembl receives majority funding from Wellcome Trust [222155/Z/20/Z]”
The paper provides an award/grant number (Wellcome Trust 222155/Z/20/Z) attached to a named funder.
DataCite Metadata Schema 4.6 — 'FundingReference' property (funderName, funderIdentifier, award · Crossref Funder Registry — canonical funder identifiers for funding metadata · RDA-F2-01M — rich metadata provided to allow discovery (funding is part of the descriptive reco
Advisory · not in the published score
“we have adopted two new machine learning and hidden Markov model-based tools: Helixer and Tiberius”
The paper names specific tools (Helixer, Tiberius) used to produce the data, providing proper-noun provenance.
RDA-R1.2-01M — 'Metadata includes provenance information according to community- specific standa · FsF-R1.2-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata includes provenance information about data creation or generati · W3C PROV-O (W3C Recommendation, 2013) — the entity/activity/agent model of provenance
“Table 1. Summary of new assemblies, annotations, and datasets across plants, animals, insects, and microbes”
Table 1 inside the article defines the data (species and update types), but no documentation object is said to accompany the data deposit. [majority verdict 'partial' (3/5 passes agreed)]
RDA-R1-01M — '(Meta)data are richly described with a plurality of accurate and relevant attribu · FsF-R1-01MD — F-UJI: 'Metadata specifies the content of the data' · NIH DMS Policy Element 3 (NOT-OD-21-014) — Standards (documentation and metadata to accompany t
Calibrated FAIR score — a parallel quality metric, independent of the DataRank citation score. See the full evaluation →
Base Score Contribution
0.464
From this paper's citation signal
Citation Network Contribution
0.0255
From 3 citing papers with measurable signal
Ranked by each citer's contribution to N(p) — log1p(Cq) divided by its reference count — out of 19 citers.
Wellcome Trust
Grant: 212925/Z/18/Z
Wellcome Trust
Grant: 226458/Z/22/Z
Wellcome Trust
Grant: 226083/Z/22/Z
Wellcome Trust
Grant: 222155/Z/20/Z
National Institutes of Health
Grant: 2U24HG007234-09
GENCODE: comprehensive reference genome annotation for human and mouse
National Institutes of Health
Grant: U41HG010972
National Institutes of Health
Grant: R01 HG010485
National Institutes of Health
Grant: U24HG011451
National Institutes of Health
Grant: 2U24HG007497-05
Identifying and Characterizing the Full Spectrum of Haplotype-resolved Structural Variation in Human Genomes
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Grant: CBMF8897
NHGRI NIH HHS
Grant: U24 HG007234
NHGRI NIH HHS
Grant: U24 HG007497
Wellcome Trust
Fields of Study
MeSH Terms
Keywords