Interoperability

Geodesy

World Wide Web

Geography

Information retrieval

Data science

Pace

Computer science

File format

Database

Metadata

Nature Methods

The rapid pace of innovation in biological imaging and the diversity of its applications have prevented the establishment of a community-agreed standardized data format. We propose that complementing established open formats such as OME-TIFF and HDF5 with a next-generation file format such as Zarr will satisfy the majority of use cases in bioimaging. Critically, a common metadata format used in all these vessels can deliver truly findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable bioimaging data.

OME-NGFF: a next-generation file format for expanding bioimaging data-access strategies