This merge operation consist in creating a parent Identification Result from few child ones. A Search Result corresponding to this parent Identification Result will be generated .

Concretely, the first step of this merge operation consist in creating merged PSMs for all peptides identified and validated in at least one child Identification Result. A single merged PSM will thus be created and filled with the best child attributes (score, missed cleavage, etc.). The best child PSM is the PSM with the higher score. Protein Inference will then be applied to create the parent Identification Result .