Metabolights

Last updated: 19 May 2025 at 16:31.

MetaboLights (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights) is a general-purpose, open-access repository for metabolomics studies, their raw experimental data and associated metadata, maintained by one of the major open-access data providers in molecular biology.

MetaboLights is a database for Metabolomics experiments and derived information. The database is cross-species, cross-technique and covers metabolite structures and their reference spectra as well as their biological roles, locations and concentrations, and experimental data from metabolic experiments. MetaboLights is the recommended Metabolomics repository for a number of leading journals. (Source: MetaboLights website).

General information

Type of service: Repository
Service homepage: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights/
Provider: European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute
Provider homepage: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/
Provides end-user support: supported

Administrative information

Data curation strategy: Curation process will take a minimum of 4 weeks
Metrics: MetaboLights is covered by Thomson Reuters Data Citation Index
Funding source: the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Medical Research Council grant MR/L01632X/1, BBSRC grant BB/M027635/1, Wellcome Trust grant 202952/Z/16/Z, National Institutes of Health grant 1U54GM114833-01 and EC H2020 grants 634402 and 654241
Intellectual property: The terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain (CC0) License apply to all MetaboLights datasets submitted from April 2025 (https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/cc0) . In this case, all submitters have specifically agreed to these terms during the submission process. All submitted datasets before that date (April 2025) are subject to the EBI terms of use (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use) .
User agreement: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
Contact: metabolights-help@ebi.ac.uk

Target group

Target audience(s): Faculty of Science
Stage in research process: After

Costs

Costs: Free of charge

Classification of the service

Confidentiality classifications for data: Public

Additional information

Additional information: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights/editor/datapolicy

Formats

Accepted metadata formats: Metabolomics Standards Initiative (MSI)
Accepted file formats: Accepts all data formats for ‘raw’ instrumental data, converted open source file formats and any processed data, but strongly recommends that processed data should be made available in open formats, such as mzML for MS data.
Supported data type(s): Raw data

Storage

Maximum size of data:
Version management: unsupported
Quality control: supported

Access

Access requirements: The MetaboLights database (as an EMBL-EBI resource) has an uniform policy of free and unrestricted access to all the datasets deposited once they are released to the public.
Tools/Interfaces for access: Web-interface

Preservation

Long term guarantees: All public datasets will remain permanently accessible to the community for the foreseeable future as part of the scientific record.