---
id: isa-rwval
version: "0.10.11"
license: CPAL-1.0
license_treatment: unclear
maintenance: aging
---

# isa-rwval — Metadata tracking tools help to manage an increasingly diverse set of life science, environmental and biomedical experiments

License: unclear · Maintenance: aging · Downloads: 107.5K/mo

## What it is and what it does

isa-rwval is a Python library that implements the ISA Abstract Model—a general-purpose metadata framework for describing life science, environmental, and biomedical experiments. It provides classes to represent investigations (project context), studies (units of research), and assays (analytical measurements), along with utilities to read and write ISA-formatted data in both tabular (ISA-Tab) and JSON serializations. The library also includes validators to ensure metadata conforms to ISA standards.

The package is designed for developers and researchers who need to programmatically construct, manipulate, or validate ISA metadata objects. It depends on networkx and supports Python 3.9 through 3.13. The codebase is aging but remains maintained, with the repository not archived and recent commits present.

Use it for:

- Construct ISA Investigation, Study, and Assay objects programmatically to generate standardized metadata for experiments.
- Validate experimental metadata against ISA format standards before submission to data repositories.
- Work with ISA-Tab and ISA-JSON serializations for integration with downstream analysis pipelines.
- Manage sample characteristics, technology types, and measurement relationships in experimental metadata.
- Support reproducible and reusable research through standardized metadata description.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides Python classes and utilities to read, write, and validate ISA (Investigation, Study, Assay) format metadata for life science experiments, supporting both ISA-Tab and ISA-JSON serializations.

Yes, if you work with ISA-formatted metadata in life science or biomedical research. The package is stable, has low install friction, and is the canonical Python implementation of ISA read/write/validation. However, note the aging maintenance status (421 days since last release), unclear license treatment under CPAL-1.0, and small community footprint (1 GitHub star). Suitable for established workflows; less ideal if you need active development or commercial support.

## Install

pip install isa-rwval
uv add isa-rwval
poetry add isa-rwval

## Installing isa-rwval

Before you install: Low friction: pure Python wheel with a single runtime dependency (networkx). Maintenance is aging—last release was 421 days ago, though the repository remains active with a commit as recent as 2025-06-18. Supports current Python versions (3.9–3.13).

License in practice: Licensed under CPAL-1.0, which is a copyleft license requiring derivative works to be made available under the same terms. License treatment is marked unclear in the metadata, so review the actual license terms before integrating into proprietary projects.

Quickstart:

pip install isa-rwval

from isa_rwval import model

investigation = model.Investigation()

Requires Python 3.9 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether matplotlib is an optional or required dependency for visualization features.
- Current state of ISA format specification compliance and any breaking changes since the last release.
- Community adoption and support level beyond the 1 GitHub star count.
- Specific use of networkx dependency and what graph operations it enables.

## Package facts

- License: CPAL-1.0 (unclear)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: aging
- Downloads: 107.5K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

ISA format metadata parsing, investigation study assay tools, biomedical experiment metadata, ISA-Tab validation, ISA-JSON serialization, life science metadata management, experimental metadata tracking, metadata-standards, bioinformatics, data-validation

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