DataPLANT launched dedicated page on the Annotated Research Context

Sat Oct 19 2024

The Annotated Research Context (ARC) is a framework for organizing and documenting research data, as well as a container that continuously supports collaboration, data exchange, and adherence to FAIR principles among various researchers. The ARC can be checked for completeness and quality at any time and converted into a citable data publication without interrupting the research or documentation process. It is built on widely accepted research data standards such as RO-Crate, ISA, and abstract CWL.

DataPLANT seeks to embed Research Data Management (RDM) as a core component of the scientific community beyond its target audience fostering open development and governance models, embracing the “open-source open-data spirit”, treating well annotated research data as shared community resources. It partners with further NFDI consortia line NFDI4BIOIMAGE and FAIRagro to promote the further development of the ARC to fit into broader application beyond fundamental plant research. Thus, the RDM community dedicated web resource ARC-RDM.ORG got lanched to explain concepts like the data management principle, tools and services, resources, the ARC data model, representation and (meta)data framework.

ARC implements widely accepted RDM standards, ensuring compatibility with technology-specific endpoints, domain-specific databases, search engines, and publication platforms with minimal extra effort. Its practical approach blends efficient data organization and documentation, making it easier to publish research data that can be transparently referenced in one or more accompanying journal publications. By adopting the ARC, researchers can seamlessly engage with the evolving RDM ecosystem, without facing barriers or limitations.

The fundamental principle of ARC is to be FAIR by design. It promotes a continuous increase in FAIRness through incremental updates and community contributions, making it an evolving system that can grow with the needs of researchers. ARC’s collaborative nature, combined with its project management features and extensive software support, fosters effective communication and distributed contributions within research teams. This makes ARC not only a data management tool but also a powerful platform for collaborative research.

To support the researchers to produce annotated research and connect to international research data management activities including workflows and services, DataPLANT provides a tailored ensemble of personal and digital technical assistance. DataPLANT Data Stewards are experts in supporting individual researchers in building, linking and maintaining the complete research context during data acquisition, curation, analysis, and publication. This is supported by providing comprehensive training to ensure data legacy through lectures, courses, workshops and summer schools and hackathons. providing open training material