The ENCODE Consortium has adopted uniform guidelines for the most common ENCODE experiments. The guidelines have evolved over time, as technologies have changed. The current guidelines are informed by results gathered during the project. Previous versions of the standards are also posted for reference.

ENCODE datasets are collected using a variety of platforms, such as ChIP-seq and RNA-seq. The consortium has undertaken several efforts to characterize these platforms to better understand the data being collected using them. Some of these efforts are described on this page.