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CIViC introduction

What is CIViC?

The Clinical Interpretations of Variants in Cancer (CIViC) database is an open access, open source, community-driven web resource that captures clinically relevant variants in cancer. CIViC is built on evidence statements, whereby each statement summarizes a variant’s potential clinical relevance as described by a publication. These evidence statements are summarized at the variant level and also at the gene level. An example of this hierarchy has been provided:

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What is an Assertion?

Evidence items can also be used to build Assertions. CIViC assertions aggregate individual evidence items into a single assessment of the clinical relevance of a variant in a specific disease setting. Assertions also allow for incorporation of guidelines (e.g., ACMG, FDA companion tests, drug approvals, AMP variant levels, NCCN guidelines, etc.). An example of a CIViC assertion is shown below:

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Getting Started

Below we have provided a screencast entitled, CIViC - Getting Started. This screencast covers: * Description of CIViC and its goals * Navigating through CIViC’s core pages * Browsing, searching, and consuming CIViC knowledgebase content



CIViC Resources

We have provided a variety of resources to introduce users to the CIVIC database. Please review the following information about CIViC and the CIViC team:

If you have further issues or wish to report a problem, feel free to email the CIViC team at help@civicdb.org

Contributing to CIViC

Any user can browse or search existing curated knowledge within the database. However, users must create an account and log-in to contribute new content to CIViC. Different types of contributions can be found under Example Activities on the CIViC help pages. These activities include:

  • Adding evidence
  • Contributing to variant or gene summaries
  • Revising existing CIViC content
  • Adding assertions
  • Other curation tasks such as variant coordinate curation

Once a new evidence item or change to existing evidence is submitted to the CIViC database it will become visible (depending on user display preferences). However, the submission will be listed as a “submitted” or “pending” until it is accepted by an editor. CIViC editors must have attained a sufficient degree of relevant education (typically PhD or MD level), must be extensively familiar with the CIViC interface, have a demonstrated track record of successful curation within the database, and must be approved by two existing editorial members. More information on becoming an editor can be found on the Becoming an Editor Help Docs. An example of how a submitted or revised evidence item becomes accepted in CIViC is shown below:

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Regardless of curator status, each activity is recorded in the database. Revision history can be viewed for all items within CIViC and personal contributions can be viewed on an individual’s user profile. To promote user activity, CIViC badges can be earned for various curation actions and the Community Leaderboards show the top CIViC contributors, parsed by activity type.

Adding Evidence Items

The main curation activity in CIViC involves adding and editing evidence statements. Below we have provided a screencast entitled, Adding CIViC Evidence to walk users through creating an evidence item in CIViC. This screencast covers:

  • Scanning a publication for curatable details
  • Signing into CIViC to Add Evidence
  • Walking through the Add Evidence form
  • Viewing the submitted evidence

More information on evidence Items can be found on the CIViC Help Pages under Evidence. This guide provides detailed information on evidence statement inputs including: variant origin, evidence types, evidence levels, and evidence trust ratings. Additionally, when users add evidence items, we provide hints and helpful prompts in the right-hand column to assist with evidence submission.

Editing entities in CIViC

Any item in the CIViC interface can be edited using the pencil icon. TO DO: insert pencil icon Below we have provided a screencast entitled, Editing entities in CIViC to walk users through editing items (i.e., evidence, variants, genes or assertions) in CIViC. This screencast covers:

  • Navigating to an entity’s Edit Form
  • Importance of edit comments
  • Identifying entities with pending changes
  • Navigating to an entity’s suggested changes
  • Reviewing entity revisions