ZFIN Tips

Requesting a ZFIN Account or laboratory record
A ZFIN account may be requested by contacting zfinadmn@zfin.org. You will need to provide your name, lab or institution affiliation and address,email address and phone number. You will be able to update your record using your new account name and password.
Laboratory records are created in a same manner. We will request some basic contact information and a designated contact person for the lab. This person may then make any necessary updates.
We are happy to help with updates as well.
Forgotten password
If you are unable to remember your password, write to zfinadmn@zfin.org and request that we reset your password.
Updating laboratory records
All desired updates to a lab record may be made by the designated lab contact person. The designated lab person is listed Contact Person on the ZFIN lab page.
A new lab member must have an individual ZFIN record before they may be added to your lab. "Adding" is just a matter of linking the personal record to your lab record. When you wish to add a link for someone who is not in ZFIN, write to zfinadmn@zfin.org and request a record be set up for them. We will link them to your lab for you.
To add individuals who do have records to your lab record, press the "add" button in your lab editing screen. At the prompt, type in the person's last name. When the search brings up a list of similar names, select the correct one and that person will automatically be linked to your record. Finally, select the person's position title from the menu beside his/her name. Similarly, you may remove someone from you lab record by clicking on the 'delete' button next to the person's name.
Publications in ZFIN
Every reference for journal articles, book chapters, books, reviews, abstracts, movies, etc., relating to zebrafish... not just zebrafish research... that we've found in our literature searches, have been entered into ZFIN. This is meant to be an all-encompassing publication list not limited to the peer reviewed papers that you would normally include in a CV. If you prefer that we delete your publication that is not a peer reviewed article, we will delete it at your request.
ZFIN does not maintain "in press" publications. Once a paper is published we should pick it up through literature searches and enter it within a week or so of its publication.
Publication missing on personal or laboratory page
Our goal is to collect all the available literature for zebrafish, so if your paper is not listed in ZFIN, it was missed rather than intentionally excluded. We find papers by searching PubMed, and may miss papers whose titles or abstracts do not contain any of the many keywords used in our search. To ensure that your paper is linked to the correct gene by ZFIN (and other databases), it's always a good idea to include the gene name and zebrafish in the abstract. If we missed your paper, please contact zfinadmn@zfin.org and we will be happy to add it.
Obtaining laboratory allele designations
Nomenclature guidelines for zebrafish mutants can be found by following the Lab Allele Designations link on ZFIN's home page. To request a letter designation for your laboratory please contact ZFIN.
Ordering fish lines, cDNAs and the Zebrafish Book
ZFIN makes every effort to provide links to providers of fish lines, cDNAS and other resources described at our web site. 'Order Links' will take you from a ZFIN data page to a resource provider.
Follow the Zebrafish Book link on ZFIN's home page to view an online version of the book. Contact ZIRC (The Zebrafish International Resource Center) to obtain a copy of the book or with additional questions.
Downloading ZFIN data in bulk
Daily ZFIN data reports may be downloaded from our home page using the Download Data link.
A description of the contents and format of each file is provided. Each record contains a ZFIN ID which may be used to link data between files. All files use tab as the field delimiter and are ordered by ZFIN ID. The 'download' links will display the file on your browser. Use your browser 'save as' feature to make a local copy of the file. If you choose to link to a ZFIN data page from your web site, append the ZFIN ID to the URL http://zfin.org/
Please direct questions or requests for additional data to ZFIN.
Linking directly to a ZFIN record
ZFIN records can be linked to by simply adding the ZFIN ID to our url.
```
http://zfin.org/[ID]
```
examples:
- ZDB-GENE-991119-4 would be http://zfin.org/ZDB-GENE-991119-4
- ZDB-PERS-970321-3 would be http://zfin.org/ZDB-PERS-970321-3
- ZFA:0000135 would be http://zfin.org/ZFA:0000135
(ZDB-IDs will always be supported, OBO IDs are supported for ontologies we import.)
Citing ZFIN
Guidelines for citing ZFIN in publications are provided here.
Getting additional help
Your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. Please contact us.
The ZFIN Glossary lists definitions of genetic, bioinformatic, and other terms used in ZFIN.
Other Zebrafish Genome Resources Tutorials are available to illustrate the use of some ZFIN, NCBI and Sanger Institute tools.
Comments or questions regarding specific data in ZFIN may be directed to our scientific curators using the 'Your Input Welcome' button found on all ZFIN data pages. Ngenotype
Antibody Search Tips
There are detailed search tips for the antibody search you can find on the search form when you click on the blue question mark next to the title.
Mutant Search Tips
There are detailed search tips for the mutant search you can find on the search form when you click on the blue question mark next to the title.
Gene Expression Search Tips
There are detailed search tips for the gene expression search you can find on the search form when you click on the blue question mark next to the title.