Table names/Protocol names unique in ARC?

[Freymaurer]

MUST Swate table names (or protocol names in ISA-JSON) be unique in the ARC? In a study? in a assay?

[HLWeil]

For intuitiveness of usage I would argue for having the Sheet names unique in the context of a study or assay and not ARC wide.

Why not ARC-wide?

It is probably hard for users to keep track of the protocol names they used across the ARC. And these often naturally repeat (e.g. "Growth").

Why in the context of an assay/a study?

On the other hand, uniqueness in a single assay file or study file is a constraint of the file format (no duplicate sheet names in xlsx files). So users, get restrained in that regard anyways.

[HLWeil]

Of course the same "keep track" argument is also true for samples/materials. But for them, the ability to cross-reference across different assays/studies is essential, which is not the case for the protocols.