---
layout: rule
id: GORULE:0000033
title: DEPRECATED. Public Reference IDs (PMID, PMC, doi, or GO_REF) should be preferred over group specific Reference IDs
type: repair
fail_mode: soft
status: deprecated
contact: "go-quality@lists.stanford.edu"
---

# DEPRECATED

References for an annotation should prefer sources from PMID, PMC, doi, or GO_REF over group specific references. 

Group references that are part of an "external accession" in a GO_REF will be replaced by the GO_REF. 

For example, `FB:FBrf0159398` is an external accession for `GO_REF:0000015`, so the FB ID will be repaired to the GO_REF.
If the group reference is the only one present, it will be reported as a warning, but not removed. 

Already existing References from PMID, PMC, doi, or GO_REF will not be reported on as these are all correct.

The list of GO_REFs are here: https://github.com/geneontology/go-site/tree/master/metadata/gorefs.