Kategorien: Datenmanagement, Elektronisches Laborbuch
Index
Labfolder
LabFolder is an electronic lab notebook, inventory management tool and the name of the company that offers the software which was founded in 2013.
As proprietary software, usage incurs monthly costs per user. A free version is also available, but with limited features and limited number of users per group.
Data can only be exported as XHTML and PDF. Labfolder licences can be purchased via the University’s clinic, for further details please visit the Labfolder website at the Medical Faculty.
Metadata
Metadata describe other data using information that is useful for interpreting and (automatically) processing the actual data, for example digital research data; they represent “data about data”.
Metadata can be elementary descriptions such as length, coding and type (number, string, date and time, currency amount, etc.). Much more important are metadata which help to categorize and characterize the properties of digital objects and provide further information that says something about their meaning. For measured values in research data, these are, for example: measuring device used or sensor used, accuracy or location of the measurement. Even the name of a data object says something about its meaning, but usually this is not enough. Often these terms are too short and too general (such as „measurement“). It’s only usually clear what this means in the context the data are used. In this way, research projects develop terms that can be misunderstood outside the project.
Ontologies are intended to relate such specific terms to a general system of terms.
Backup
Say no to data loss and back up your data
WissKI
WissKI
WissKI is a virtual research environment that enables scientific, location-independent and collaborative work with linked data. On the basis of an ontology, the research data are semantically enriched and stored in the form of triples in a coherent data network (graph database).
Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELN)
Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) are software applications that are used to document research data and replace paper laboratory books.
ELNs offer several advantages to the paper equivalent:
- Data findability through search and filter functions
- Accessibility: Network access regardless of location and time
- Backup copies of lab notebooks (previous versions can be restored)
- Reusability of templates, protocols and processes
- Time savings through templates, standardization and existing digital data
- Automatic recording of measurement results
The decision to use ELN software should be made carefully, as it is generally used over a long period of time. Important points that should be taken into account in the decision can be found here.
Research data management
According to the definition on the website Forschungsdaten.info, research data management is the process of transforming, selecting and storing research data with the aim of keeping them accessible, usable and verifiable in the long term and independent of the data generator. To this end, structured measures can be taken at all points of the data life cycle to maintain the scientific validity of research data, to preserve accessibility by third parties for evaluation and analysis and to secure the chain of custody.
The practical application and benefits for the researchers are illustrated in the following video
“Forschungsdaten leben länger” (German)
FAU considers safeguarding and managing research data (RD) as essential for successful and sustainable research and scientific integrity. It is essential that research data are handled responsibly and methodically. If the University, its members and the general public are to benefit, this must not only be encouraged but also made a requirement, and it is important to raise awareness of research data and FAIR principles in the long term. See FAU Research Data Policy.
Research data
According to the definition on the website Forschungsdaten.info, research data are data generated during scientific activity (e.g. through measurements, surveys, source work).
This definition applies to both newly generated and processed data, regardless of whether these data are incorporated into a publication and whether they are available in analog or digital form. Research data form the basis of scientific work.
This results in the need for a discipline and project-specific understanding of research data with different requirements for the preparation, processing and management of the data: this is known as research data management.
Research data and their metadata are explained simply in this video using the example of squirrel research.
Backup
Datenverlust – Nein Danke
Personal data
Personal data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. It should be noted that this also applies if a person can be identified indirectly. Since May 25, 2018, the Federal Data Protection Act (Germany) and the GDPR (EU) apply. Both laws deal with data protection and privacy.
Further information on this topic can be found on the FAU Data Protection page and here.
CRIS
CRIS steht für „Current Research Information System“, also für ein Forschungsinformationssystem. In diesem werden Informationen über die Existenz von Forschungsleistungen gespeichert, beispielsweise Angaben zu einer Publikation, einem Forschungsprojekt, Forschungsdaten oder Erfindungen. Dabei werden nur Metadaten hinterlegt, so wird z.B. der Volltext zu einer Publikation nicht direkt im CRIS aufbewahrt, sehr wohl aber die Angabe, wo dieser Volltext zu finden ist (bspw. über Angabe der DOI).
In Forschungsinformationssystemen werden die verschiedenen Datenbereiche verknüpft: Publikationen werden nicht nur Personen, sondern auch Projekten zugeordnet, Projekte wiederum bestimmten Forschungsbereichen. Hierzu werden auch interne Datenquellen der Universität genutzt, was einen Mehrwert gegenüber klassischen Listenformaten und Datenanbietern wie Scopus oder Web of Science bietet.