# Creating A Collection

## About Collections

Pathogenwatch collections are a way of creating meaningful groups of genomes for comparing and sharing with collaborators and the communities. Typical uses of collections include:

* Supplementing publications,
* Providing an interactive public interface to a large-scale survey,
* Storing the results of a particular study or investigation for future reference,
* Highlighting an observation and sharing with public health colleagues.

## Creating A Collection

Collections are created by first selecting assemblies in the [Genomes](https://www.wgsa.net/genomes/all) window - for a quick example visit the "[Getting Started](../../a-getting-started-tutorial#tutorial)" tutorial or the ["Browsing Genomes"](../browsing-genomes#selecting-assemblies) documentation page. If you are creating a collection of freshly uploaded assemblies, these will already be displayed for selection. Once the required assemblies are selected, click the "Selected Assemblies" button and then "Create Collection".&#x20;

At this point, you are presented with the option of filling in a description of the collection. The fields include:

* **Title** - This will be included in the collection URL.
* **Description** - A short description of the collection, perhaps to explain to other people what it is for.
* **PMID/DOI** - The [PubMed](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/) or [DOI](https://www.doi.org/) identifier if it is linked to a publication.

![](https://321039241-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-LB6jV5PGtOeTCAE8S8I%2Fuploads%2FC7Nx7yD15ysXShOhQ0Co%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=64158996-8afa-49ca-b088-c8266b734e39)

Finally, click "Create Now" and you will be taken to the [Collection View.](collection-view) For a subset of species, listed under thee "SNP tree supported" filter, a tree will be calculated using an internal method described in "[Core Genome Tree](../technical-descriptions/core-genome-tree)". If the tree of the collection has not been previously calculated, it make a few seconds to a few minutes to create, depending on the server load and collection size.

The URL of the collection is permanent, and is composed of a unique unpredictable identifier (required) and the title of the collection (optional, for readability). If the tree is taking time to build, it's safe to close the window and return later.

