Title: Proposal for a framework of contextual metadata in selected research infrastructures of the life sciences and the social sciences & humanities
Authors: Christian Ohmann; Maria Panagiotopoulou; Steve Canham; Petr Holub; Kurt Majcen; Gary Saunders; Maddalena Fratelli; Jing Tang; Philip Gribbon; Reagon Karki; Mari Kleemola; Katja Moilanen; Daan Broeder; Walter Daelemans; Pieter Fivez
Addresses: European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN), Bd Saint-Jacques, Paris, France ' European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN), Bd Saint-Jacques, Paris, France ' European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN), Bd Saint-Jacques, Paris, France ' Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure - European Research Infrastructure Consortium (BBMRI-ERIC), Neue Stiftingtalstrasse 2/B/6, Graz, Austria ' Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure - European Research Infrastructure Consortium (BBMRI-ERIC), Neue Stiftingtalstrasse 2/B/6, Graz, Austria ' European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine (EATRIS-ERIC), De Boelelaan 1118, Amsterdam, The Netherlands ' Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Via Mario Negri, Milano, Italy ' Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Haaatmaninkatu, Helsinki, Finland ' Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology (ITMP), VolksparkLabs, Schnackenburgallee 114, Hamburg, Germany ' Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology (ITMP), VolksparkLabs, Schnackenburgallee 114, Hamburg, Germany ' Finnish Social Science Data Archive, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland ' Finnish Social Science Data Archive, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland ' Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure Network (CLARIN ERIC), Utrecht University, BS Utrecht, The Netherlands ' Department of Linguistics, University of Antwerp, Lange Winkelstraat 40, Antwerp, Belgium ' Antwerp Text Mining Centre (TEXTUA), University of Antwerp, Lange Winkelstraat 40-42, Antwerp, Belgium
Abstract: Usually, the focus of metadata annotation is on the research output rather than the context in which products were generated. The objective of this project was to develop a framework for contextual metadata, involving six research infrastructures (RIs) from two different domains. As a first step semi-structured interviews were performed to assess the current handling of contextual metadata. Then, these results were put into perspective with the main entities of research processes in general, leading to a framework for contextual metadata. From the discussion with the RIs and in alignment with the referenced literature, basic entities related to contextual metadata are defined and organised in a framework. In summary, a considerable amount of contextual metadata information is already covered by the RIs, however, not always explicit but implicit within text descriptions. The RIs involved see contextual metadata as necessary to improve replicability and reliability of research and FAIRness of data.
Keywords: contextual metadata; metadata schema; ontology; information model; EOSC; European Open Science Cloud; life sciences; social sciences & humanities; research infrastructures; interviews; knowledge graph; framework.
DOI: 10.1504/IJMSO.2023.140695
International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies, 2023 Vol.16 No.4, pp.261 - 277
Published online: 30 Aug 2024 *