{"doi":"10.1093/nargab/lqad070","title":"Single-cell reference mapping to construct and extend cell-type hierarchies","abstract":"Single-cell genomics is now producing an ever-increasing amount of datasets that, when integrated, could provide large-scale reference atlases of tissue in health and disease. Such large-scale atlases increase the scale and generalizability of analyses and enable combining knowledge generated by individual studies. Specifically, individual studies often differ regarding cell annotation terminology and depth, with different groups specializing in different cell type compartments, often using distinct terminology. Understanding how these distinct sets of annotations are related and complement each other would mark a major step towards a consensus-based cell-type annotation reflecting the latest knowledge in the field. Whereas recent computational techniques, referred to as 'reference mapping' methods, facilitate the usage and expansion of existing reference atlases by mapping new datasets (i.e. queries) onto an atlas; a systematic approach towards harmonizing dataset-specific cell-type terminology and annotation depth is still lacking. Here, we present 'treeArches', a framework to automatically build and extend reference atlases while enriching them with an updatable hierarchy of cell-type annotations across different datasets. We demonstrate various use cases for treeArches, from automatically resolving relations between reference and query cell types to identifying unseen cell types absent in the reference, such as disease-associated cell states. We envision treeArches enabling data-driven construction of consensus atlas-level cell-type hierarchies and facilitating efficient usage of reference atlases.","journal":"NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics","year":2023,"id":8807,"datarank":1.012554190863005,"base_score":3.6635616461296463,"endowment":3.6635616461296463,"self_citation_contribution":0.5495342469194471,"citation_network_contribution":0.4630199439435579,"self_endowment_contribution":0.5495342469194471,"citer_contribution":0.4630199439435579,"corpus_percentile":79.90252958923185,"corpus_rank":2599,"citation_count":38,"citer_count":29,"citers_with_citation_signal":17,"citers_with_endowment":17,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":true,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8528,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":38,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-07-05","fair_score":70.8333,"fair_percentile":91.99021705900336,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1694,"name":"Mohammad Lotfollahi","orcid":"0000-0001-6858-7985","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":11446,"name":"Daniel Strobl","orcid":"0000-0002-5516-7057","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":52013,"name":"Avi Srivastava","orcid":"0000-0001-9798-2079","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":37194,"name":"Marcel J.T. Reinders","orcid":"0000-0002-1148-1562","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":42,"name":"Fabian Joachim Theis","orcid":"0000-0002-2419-1943","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":37171,"name":"Ahmed Mahfouz","orcid":"0000-0001-8601-2149","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":40531,"name":"Lieke Michielsen","orcid":"0000-0003-4615-1309","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":38,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-03-01T18:20:47.508186Z","pmid":"37502708","pmcid":"PMC10370450","fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":72.2222,"fair_a":50.0,"fair_i":20.0,"fair_r":41.6667,"fair_zscore":1.4401,"fair_rationale":{"fair_score":70.83,"has_llm":true,"taxonomy_version":"fair_taxonomy_v5","dimensions":{"F":{"name":"Findable","score":72.22,"criteria":[{"key":"f_dataset_pid","label":"Persistent identifier for the data","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12420968.v8","grounded":true,"rationale":"The data availability statement provides DOIs for the data. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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'"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"f_repository_named","label":"Named repository","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"PBMC count data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12420968.v8","grounded":true,"rationale":"The data are deposited in figshare, which is a named repository. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"f_data_availability_statement","label":"Data-availability statement","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"PBMC count data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12420968.v8 Brain count data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8086471 PBMC + brain latent space: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8086471 HLCA latent space: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6337966","grounded":true,"rationale":"The data availability statement points to repository records with DOIs. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"f_discovery_metadata","label":"Description of the dataset as an object","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"The paper does not provide an itemised inventory of the deposited data's files, variables, or samples. [majority verdict 'no' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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'"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"f_dataset_cited","label":"Dataset formally cited","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.5,"verdict":"partial","evidence":"PBMC count data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12420968.v8","grounded":true,"rationale":"The dataset identifiers appear only in the body text (Data Availability section), not in the reference list. [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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'"],"scored":true,"signal":null}]},"A":{"name":"Accessible","score":50.0,"criteria":[{"key":"a_data_openly_accessible","label":"Access route free of preconditions","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"All code to reproduce the results and figures can be found at the reproducibility GitHub: https://github.com/lcmmichielsen/treeArches-reproducibility","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper gives an unconditional, direct route to the code and supplementary data with no stated precondition.","anchors":["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'"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"a_access_conditions_stated","label":"Access level labelled","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"The paper does not label the access level of the data with any standard vocabulary term or natural-language equivalent. [majority verdict 'no' (3/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"a_controlled_access_for_sensitive","label":"Gatekeeper for sensitive data","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"No sensitive or human-subject data are deposited by this study, so no gatekeeper is named.","anchors":["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"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"a_timeline_retention","label":"Availability timing & retention","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"The paper does not state when the data become available or how long they persist. [majority verdict 'no' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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'"],"scored":false,"signal":null}]},"I":{"name":"Interoperable","score":20.0,"criteria":[{"key":"i_open_nonproprietary_format","label":"Open file format","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"The paper does not name a file format for the deposited data.","anchors":["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"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"i_community_standard_vocabulary","label":"Community standard / vocabulary","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"No data or metadata community standard is named and applied to the paper's own data.","anchors":["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'"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"i_qualified_references","label":"Identifiers for the resources the data depend on","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"PBMC count data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12420968.v8","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper provides a DOI for an external dataset used in the study, which is a qualified reference to another resource.","anchors":["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'"],"scored":false,"signal":null}]},"R":{"name":"Reusable","score":41.67,"criteria":[{"key":"r_reuse_license","label":"Reuse licence","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"The paper does not attach a licence to the data; the CC-BY licence applies to the article only.","anchors":["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'"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"r_provenance_methods","label":"Provenance of the data","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.5,"verdict":"partial","evidence":"treeArches is built around scArches (version 0.5.3) and scHPL (version 1.0.1)","grounded":false,"rationale":"The paper names specific software and versions used to generate the data. [downgraded to 'partial' — no verifiable quote from the paper] [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"r_documentation_codebook","label":"Documentation / codebook","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"No documentation object (README, codebook, data dictionary) is named as travelling with the data.","anchors":["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"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"r_versioning","label":"Snapshot identified","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12420968.v8","grounded":true,"rationale":"The data DOIs include version tokens (e.g., 'v8'). [majority verdict 'yes' (3/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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'"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"x_code_availability","label":"Analysis code available","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"treeArches is part of the scArches repository ( https://github.com/theislab/scarches , https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8086075 )","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper gives a machine-resolvable locator (DOI and GitHub URL) for the study's code.","anchors":["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)"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"x_funding_attribution","label":"Funder and award number","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"NWO Gravitation project: BRAINSCAPES: A Roadmap from Neurogenetics to Neurobiology [NWO: 024.004.012]","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper provides an award number associated with a named funder.","anchors":["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"],"scored":true,"signal":null}]}},"actions":[{"key":"r_reuse_license","dimension":"R","label":"Reuse licence","action":"Attach a standard, machine-readable open licence to the deposit — CC0 or CC BY, which is what Horizon Europe and most funders expect — and print the licence identifier in the paper. 'Free to use' is not a licence: it grants nothing a reuser's institution can rely on.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"The paper does not attach a licence to the data; the CC-BY licence applies to the article only.","gain":16.67,"priority":"essential","scored":true},{"key":"i_open_nonproprietary_format","dimension":"I","label":"Open file format","action":"Release the data in an open, community-standard format (CSV/TSV, JSON, HDF5, NetCDF, FASTQ, VCF, NIfTI…) instead of — or alongside — any proprietary or instrument-native format, and name the format in the paper. A dataset that needs a €2,000 licence to open is not reusable. Prefer open genomics / sequencing formats such as FASTQ, BAM or VCF.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"The paper does not name a file format for the deposited data.","gain":8.33,"priority":"important","scored":true},{"key":"f_dataset_cited","dimension":"F","label":"Dataset formally cited","action":"Cite the dataset in the reference list like a publication — creator, year, title, repository, DOI/accession — and cite it in-text where it is used. Only a reference- list entry is machine-readable to Crossref/DataCite, and only a citation lets the data earn credit. Cite the genomics / sequencing repository accession (e.g. from GEO (GSE accession), SRA (SRP/SRR) or ENA/BioProject (PRJEB/PRJNA)) in the reference list.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"partial","current":0.5,"evidence":"PBMC count data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12420968.v8","why":"The dataset identifiers appear only in the body text (Data Availability section), not in the reference list. [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]","gain":4.17,"priority":"important","scored":true},{"key":"f_discovery_metadata","dimension":"F","label":"Description of the dataset as an object","action":"Add a 'Data Records' section: itemise every file in the deposit and every variable or sample it holds, with counts and units. Describe the dataset as an object in its own right, not as a by-product of the findings — this is what makes it discoverable to someone who is not looking for your paper.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"The paper does not provide an itemised inventory of the deposited data's files, variables, or samples. [majority verdict 'no' (4/5 passes agreed)]","gain":0.0,"priority":"essential","scored":false},{"key":"a_access_conditions_stated","dimension":"A","label":"Access level labelled","action":"State the access level in words, using the standard vocabulary: 'These data are open access' / 'These data are controlled access'. A reader — and a harvester — should not have to infer the access level from the presence of a download link.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"The paper does not label the access level of the data with any standard vocabulary term or natural-language equivalent. [majority verdict 'no' (3/5 passes agreed)]","gain":0.0,"priority":"important","scored":false},{"key":"i_community_standard_vocabulary","dimension":"I","label":"Community standard / vocabulary","action":"Adopt and NAME your domain's data standard — the minimum-information checklist, metadata schema, or ontology your community uses (MIAME/MINSEQE, ISA-Tab, BIDS, an OBO ontology, HL7 FHIR/OMOP) — and say which one you followed. A reporting checklist standardises your paper; it does nothing for your data. In genomics / sequencing, describe the data with MIAME, MINSEQE or MIxS.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"No data or metadata community standard is named and applied to the paper's own data.","gain":0.0,"priority":"important","scored":false},{"key":"r_provenance_methods","dimension":"R","label":"Provenance of the data","action":"Name the instruments, kits, and software — with versions — that produced the data, not just the verbs. 'Reads were aligned' is not provenance; 'aligned with STAR v2.7.9a to GRCh38' is, because someone else can rerun it.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"partial","current":0.5,"evidence":"treeArches is built around scArches (version 0.5.3) and scHPL (version 1.0.1)","why":"The paper names specific software and versions used to generate the data. [downgraded to 'partial' — no verifiable quote from the paper] [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]","gain":0.0,"priority":"important","scored":false},{"key":"r_documentation_codebook","dimension":"R","label":"Documentation / codebook","action":"Ship a README and a data dictionary IN the deposit — every file, every variable, its units, its allowed values, its missing-value codes. It is the cheapest single thing that makes a dataset usable by someone who was not in the lab, and a table buried in the article does not travel with the data.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"No documentation object (README, codebook, data dictionary) is named as travelling with the data.","gain":0.0,"priority":"important","scored":false},{"key":"a_controlled_access_for_sensitive","dimension":"A","label":"Gatekeeper for sensitive data","action":"Route sensitive data through an institutional gatekeeper — deposit in a controlled- access repository (dbGaP, EGA) with a Data Access Committee and a published DUA — rather than through the corresponding author's inbox. An author-gated dataset dies with the author's email address, and 'on reasonable request' has been shown repeatedly not to yield data. For sensitive/human genomics / sequencing data, use a controlled-access repository such as dbGaP or EGA.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"No sensitive or human-subject data are deposited by this study, so no gatekeeper is named.","gain":0.0,"priority":"useful","scored":false},{"key":"a_timeline_retention","dimension":"A","label":"Availability timing & retention","action":"State when the data become available AND how long they will be retained — cite the repository's preservation policy. NIH DMS Element 4 asks for both; most papers give neither.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"The paper does not state when the data become available or how long they persist. [majority verdict 'no' (4/5 passes agreed)]","gain":0.0,"priority":"useful","scored":false}],"suggestions":["Attach a standard, machine-readable open licence to the deposit — CC0 or CC BY, which is what Horizon Europe and most funders expect — and print the licence identifier in the paper. 'Free to use' is not a licence: it grants nothing a reuser's institution can rely on.","Release the data in an open, community-standard format (CSV/TSV, JSON, HDF5, NetCDF, FASTQ, VCF, NIfTI…) instead of — or alongside — any proprietary or instrument-native format, and name the format in the paper. A dataset that needs a €2,000 licence to open is not reusable. Prefer open genomics / sequencing formats such as FASTQ, BAM or VCF.","Cite the dataset in the reference list like a publication — creator, year, title, repository, DOI/accession — and cite it in-text where it is used. Only a reference- list entry is machine-readable to Crossref/DataCite, and only a citation lets the data earn credit. Cite the genomics / sequencing repository accession (e.g. from GEO (GSE accession), SRA (SRP/SRR) or ENA/BioProject (PRJEB/PRJNA)) in the reference list.","Add a 'Data Records' section: itemise every file in the deposit and every variable or sample it holds, with counts and units. Describe the dataset as an object in its own right, not as a by-product of the findings — this is what makes it discoverable to someone who is not looking for your paper.","State the access level in words, using the standard vocabulary: 'These data are open access' / 'These data are controlled access'. A reader — and a harvester — should not have to infer the access level from the presence of a download link."],"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash","agent_version":"fair_agent_v8","fulltext_source":"epmc_xml"},"fair_model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash","fair_agent_version":"fair_agent_v8","fair_fulltext_source":"epmc_xml","fair_has_llm":true,"fair_computed_at":"2026-07-20T11:27:34.411451Z","clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}