[PLUG-TALK] Excel autocorrect threatens genomic research

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Wed Aug 18 21:04:23 UTC 2021


Nature (science journal) 2021 August 13
https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02211-4

Autocorrect errors in Excel still creating genomics headache
----------
Despite geneticists being warned about spreadsheet
problems, 30% of published papers contain mangled gene
names in supplementary data. 
...
The long-standing issue often occurs when the abbreviated
form of a gene’s name — known as a gene symbol — is
incorrectly recognized as a date and autocorrected as such
by Excel or Google Sheets. For example, SEPT4 (septin 4)
and MARCH1 (membrane associated ring-CH-type finger 1)
will be automatically changed to 4-Sep and 1-Mar.
...
LibreOffice and Gnumeric — don’t have the problem 
...
Microsoft has never indicated that it will alter its
software to accommodate the genetics community.




-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com



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