Join DSSTox Effort
The topic areas below provide further information on how the DSSTox community of users can contribute to the expansion of this public effort.
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Help identify new DSSTox database candidates
The single most important contribution you as a user can make to this community effort is to help us identify and migrate more public toxicity databases into the DSSTox format for publication on this site. If you or someone you know has a toxicity database worthy of DSSTox publication, that has been published or is in the public domain, and that would be of interest to the larger DSSTox user community, there are three options:
Contact Us with information on the database, i.e., electronic files, references, links, or main contacts, and why you think it would be a good candidate for publication.
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We offer a variety of information, templates, and guidance documents on this website to aid anyone wishing to become a DSSTox Source and publish a toxicity database in DSSTox format. For more information on benefits, responsibilities, and resources for aiding in DSSTox database construction, see How to Publish a DSSTox Database. Any questions, Contact Us.
Volunteer to be a DSSTox database reviewer
For this community effort to succeed, we will need help. Aside from writing documention and filling data fields, the most time-consuming and important job in DSSTox database creation is the quality review process. Ideally, we are hoping to spread the responsibility of reviewing new DSSTox data and documentation files across multiple persons, so that no one person is overtaxed or overwhelmed. If you would be willing to serve as an occasional DSSTox reviewer, please Contact Us. Let us know if you could review SDF data files, or if you would prefer to be a proof-reader and reviewer of DSSTox documentation files. We pledge not to over work any one person, and you can always decline when asked.
We invite contributions of scripts (such as those for manipulating and editing SDF files), or links to websites of interest. Decisions on which items to post will be based on their relevance to this website content and perceived utility to DSSTox users. Contributed scripts, tools, or links will be posted on the various webpages indexed on the Apps, Tools & More webpage. We can only offer downloadable files and short descriptions of items on this website, but we can easily link a user to an external site for accessing additional files or information.
Help publicize the DSSTox effort
DSSTox will have to enlist community support if it is to be reliably maintained and expanded. The more people that visit this website, use the DSSTox files, adopt the DSSTox standard format, contribute DSSTox databases for publication, and help publicize this effort, the more this public resource will expand and grow. We ask of users only to adhere to recommended reporting and citation guidelines when using DSSTox data files (see How to Use DSSTox Files).
Although the DSSTox project has been proposed and offered as a community resource, we recognize that the effort prior to the public website launch has been largely the creation of a few dedicated individuals. Although many have offered suggestions during the course of this website development, there has been no solicitation of wider community input. With the launch of this website, however, we hope that this will no longer be the case. What we have proposed in this initial version of DSSTox is the first phase of what we envision to be an evolving set of database standards and ideas for better serving the structure-activity modelers, and predictive toxicology community and public at large. Hence, we welcome any feedback, suggestions, or ideas on this website, the DSSTox proposed standards, data files, etc. Contact Us with your ideas and suggestions, or for reporting specific data file errors, use File Error Report.