Editing Biological database (section)

== Technical basis and theoretical concepts ==
[[Relational database]] concepts of [[computer science]] and [[Information retrieval]] concepts of [[Digital library|digital libraries]] are important for understanding biological databases.  Biological database design, development, and long-term management is a core area of the discipline of [[bioinformatics]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Bourne P |title=Will a biological database be different from a biological journal? |journal=PLOS Comput. Biol. |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=179–81 |date=August 2005 |pmid=16158097 |doi=10.1371/journal.pcbi.0010034 |pmc=1193993|bibcode=2005PLSCB...1...34B |doi-access=free }}</ref> Data contents include gene sequences, textual descriptions, attributes and [[Ontology (information science)|ontology]] classifications, citations, and tabular data.  These are often described as semi-[[structured data]], and can be represented as tables, key delimited records, and [[XML]] structures.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}