Balancing sufficiency and impact in reporting standards for mass spectrometry imaging experiments

Abstract

Reproducibility, or a lack thereof, is an increasingly important topic across many research fields. A key aspect of reproducibility is accurate reporting of both experiments and the resulting data. Herein, we propose a reporting guideline for mass spectrometry imaging (MSI). Previous standards have laid out guidelines sufficient to guarantee a certain quality of reporting; however, they set a high bar and as a consequence can be exhaustive and broad, thus limiting uptake. To help address this lack of uptake, we propose a reporting supplement—Minimum Information About a Mass Spectrometry Imaging Experiment (MIAMSIE)—and its abbreviated reporting standard version, MSIcheck. MIAMSIE is intende..