Exploring Determinants of Longevity of Biomedical Databases

The maintenance of biomedical databases requires ongoing and systematic efforts in keeping them up-to-date which may affect long-term sustainability. Since research has become more reliant on publicly available biomedical data collections, it is important to understand factors affecting their longevity. The aim of this article was to explore potential determinants of biomedical database longevity. To build an analytical dataset, we used Database journal that have been created as an open access platform for presenting biological databases. A stratified analysis of all the original databases published in Database journal between 2009 and 2016 was conducted depending on their accessibility status. Overall, 35% of 518 analyzed databases were not accessible in 2020. We showed that databases with higher citation counts from institutions with higher scientific output were significantly more likely to be currently accessible. Databases from researchers with higher h-index were more likely to be accessible. Further investigation is warranted to identify factors affecting longevity of high impact databases.