Table 2.

A minimum standard for virus metadata.

Variable	Descriptor
Virus	Virus species name (using appropriate species concept)
Viral lineage	Virus intraspecific lineage (e.g., Asian lineage of Zika virus) if known
Viral strain	Viral strain name (if one exists)
Viral GenBank accession	Accession number for viral sequences
Viral origin (locality)	Where a virus was originally sourced from in humans or wild animals
Viral origin (year)	When a viral strain was sourced from humans or wild animals
Viral history (passage)	Cell type and passage number (e.g., Vero cells, passage 2)
Virus history (freshness)	Was viral stock frozen at any stage in the process, or was it collected fresh and directly used in experiments?