Over a year with the Bioconductor Community (BugSigDB)

HOW MY JOURNEY TO THE COMMUNITY BEGAN:

My Journey began when I was fresh out of school as a biochemistry graduate, as someone who had completed several internships in the field but still was not convinced about the exact path to follow. I was also passionate about joining the tech industry, so I first of all diversified into devops/cloud engineering, which I truly enjoyed and still do.

In the channels I had joined to network and meet other young/old professionals I came across a post about outreachy. I was unaware about the program but after reading through what it entailed, It resonated deeply with my values and Interests. I applied and got into the contribution phase at my first attempt, but I could not proceed as I had to focus on my final year projects. I said to myself that I must reapply the next time the application opens.

I applied again during the next cycle but didn’t make it to the contribution phase. Before the next opening, I asked myself what I could improve. I wrote down my application answers in advance, revised them several times, and prepared intentionally.

THE JOURNEY ITSELF INTO THE COMMUNITY:

I was overjoyed and super happy when I saw that I could finally contribute again. This time, I knew exactly which community I would like to participate in: BugsigDB. I also finally had the time and clarity to dedicate myself fully, but I still wasn’t completely sure how to begin.

Although, even before the announcement, I had joined the slack channel, but everything felt unfamiliar. Immediately the official phase began, I followed the steps of previously experienced curators, collaborated with them,and studied previously reviewed curations. Things started to click almost immediately.

Ever since I have been contributing to the BugSigDB project within the Bioconductor community. Although I did not get selected as an Outreachy intern after that cycle or even the one after I kept contributing. This marks my third cycle of continued involvement with this amazing community since October 2024.

WHAT EXACTLY IS BugSigDB?

In short, BugSigDB is a community-editable Database that standardizes and catalogs Microbial Signatures from published microbiome studies to support comparison, search and enrichment analysis.

MY CONTRIBUTION EXPERIENCE:

Contribution can be done in different ways either through collaborating with others, reviewing curations, resolving taxa with missing NCBI ID, adding articles into the github issues as a paper to be curated, personally curating an article, Peer reviews, handling a first bugSimple good first issue using R and several other tasks. I have been able to participate across all these areas and still continue working closely with mentors and fellow contributors.

My contributions history: https://bugsigdb.org/Special:Contributions/Tosin

There are a few notes and guidelines necessary to help build confidence in curating studies or working in this great community which also helped me grow:

1. Attention to details: A key part of curating studies is paying close attention to every detail. It could be a spelling error, the use of lowercase instead of capital letters, or resolving taxa at the wrong rank.

2. Open communication & Ask questions: We hold a weekly meeting in the community to discuss challenges and support each other when anyone is stuck. It is very important to communicate, request peer reviews, and ask questions when unsure, as it truly is a welcoming community.

3. Teamwork: Collaborating with others creates opportunities to learn from one another and share ideas. It also helps you learn to accept feedback and even experience the process of mentoring, especially when working with a new curator.

I still make sure to ask questions, as I prioritize quality curations over quantity especially with the recent curation policy update. Don’t be shy; stay open and willing to learn.

WHAT THE COMMUNITY TAUGHT ME:

One thing that truly stands out is the environment Bioconductor creates. It is open, Patient, and Supportive. Every review came with constructive feedback. Every question had space. I never felt out of place; instead, I felt encouraged to learn and improve.

Collaborating with people across time zones, backgrounds, and scientific disciplines showed me the strength of open science communities. Knowledge is shared, work is collective, and growth is continuous.

WHY BUGSIGDB MATTERS:

The microbiome field grows fast, and sometimes unevenly. Results vary from study to study, making comparisons difficult. BugSigDB helps solve this challenge by:

• offering standardized microbial signatures,

• enabling cross-study and cross-disease comparisons,

• supporting enrichment and meta-analysis, and

• improving reproducibility through open, structured data.

Knowing that my curation work contributes to a resource used by the wider research community is incredibly rewarding.

LOOKING AHEAD:

After over a year with Bioconductor and BugSigDB, I’m excited for what comes next. I want to continue contributing, refining curation processes, learning deeper microbiome analysis techniques, and supporting new contributors, just as others supported me.

This experience has also strengthened my interest in community-driven research and public-health focused microbiome science. I’m eager to keep exploring new directions as they unfold.

A NOTE OF GRATITUDE:

I am grateful to my mentors, the maintainers, reviewers, and every community member whose guidance made this journey meaningful. BugSigDB is more than a database; It is a collective effort powered by kindness, rigor, and collaboration.

Here’s to continued learning, contribution, and impact. In the coming weeks, I plan to share more updates on my progress within the community.

HOW DO I JOIN THIS COMMUNITY:

You can reach out to my mentor Dr. Svetlana Ugarcina Perovic on LinkedIN, X and Bluesky. Here is a link to the zulip channel as well: https://chat.bioconductor.org/

A simple introduction in #bsdb-introductions is enough to get you started.

Thank you so much for reading!!! 🙌