Minimum Information for Publication of Quantitative Digital PCR Experiments (dMIQE)

The Minimum Information for Publication of Quantitative Digital PCR Experiments (dMIQE) guidelines, first published in 2013 and revised as dMIQE2020, are community-developed best practice standards for reporting digital PCR (dPCR) studies. They recommend the minimum information that should be provided to ensure data are transparent, reproducible, and interpretable. Many journals endorse dMIQE2020 and request inclusion of the checklist at submission, improving peer review, comparability, and data reuse.

Applies to all quantitative dPCR applications (e.g., oncology rare variant detection, infectious disease viral load, gene expression, copy number variation, reference material characterization) across droplet- and chip-based platforms.

Sample and Nucleic Acid: Source, type, extraction/purification method, and quality assessment.

Assay Details: Primer/probe sequences; if proprietary, justification plus target/amplicon reference (e.g., GenBank accession, base positions).

Reaction & Instrumentation: Complete reaction composition, platform used, thermal cycling conditions.

Data Analysis & Quality Control: Partition numbers/volumes, accepted partitions, λ (copies per partition), analysis software/version, thresholding method, reported concentration, precision (replicates, uncertainty, or confidence interval), and use of appropriate controls/reference materials.