Submitting a Term Request to EFO
All term requests are reviewed by the EFO team and scheduled for inclusion in a future release.
Via GitHub (preferred)
Our GitHub issue tracker is the primary channel for term requests, bug reports, and other feedback about EFO.
You will need a free GitHub account to submit an issue.
- The proposed term label (and any synonyms)
- A textual definition
- The suggested parent term in EFO (if known)
- A reference (publication, database entry, or URI) supporting the definition
- Your use case — which database or resource will use this term?
By Template (bulk requests)
If you need to request many terms at once, please contact the EFO team to discuss your needs so we can provide a suitable template: efo-users@ebi.ac.uk.
Bulk requests are common when integrating a new database or dataset with EFO, and we are happy to work with you to prioritise and schedule them.
Community ontologies
For terms that are also relevant to other community reference ontologies — such as Gene Ontology, ChEBI, or UBERON — we often submit the request to the appropriate ontology first and then import the term into EFO. This avoids duplication and keeps EFO aligned with the wider biomedical ontology ecosystem.
Mailing List & Announcements
To receive EFO release announcements and take part in discussions, join the efo-users public mailing list.