About the Data

This is likely the reason you’re visiting the ARK Portal in the first place—to access data. The portal offers helpful filtering tools to help you find data of interest. All of the data and resources uploaded into the portal are associated with metadata, so they can be easily used to help query the list of resources in each page. 

Get started exploring data

Dataset Collections

Data in the portal is grouped into Datasets Collections of which there are two flavors: Experimental Data and Publications. Experimental Data are datasets related to a specific project, assay, or disease. Publications are datasets used in specific manuscripts. A Publication dataset may have a subset of files, or files that span multiple Experimental Data datasets. Use the dataset annotations to query for specific assays, tissue types, and which program and project the data is associated with. See also the short description in the dataset table.

Individual Datasets

Each dataset has three components:

• Description: This is a summary describing the dataset

• Acknowledgement: A condition of use for any data obtained through the portal is the attribution of data contributors and funders. Use the acknowledgement statement as listed on the dataset page.

• Files: Find and download the experimental data and metadata files. The following metadata is provided

  • Phenotypes: This is a list of all individuals in a specific Program. The file is linked to all datasets relevant to that program, and may list more individuals than what is relevant to a specific dataset

  • Biospecimen: This is information on the specimens used in the assays. The specimen ID is linked to the individual ID in the Phenotype file

  • Quality Assessments/Protocols: Where available, additional information about QC and protocols are provided

All Data

This is a table of all the files in the portal. It can be queried in the same way as files within specific Datasets. Note that datafiles are annotated with the Experimental Data datasets they are part of.

Downloading Data

See the Download Options in the upper right of the file tables found in Datasets and the All Data view.

You have 3 options:

• Export Table: Download a csv or tsv file with filenames and associated annotations

• Add To Download Cart: Add files to a cart to modify or download later. Note, this is a great way to determine the size of the data you have selected.

• Programmatic Options: See Command Line, R, or Python code for downloading files directly.

Learn the basic commands for installing the Synapse API Clients.