Let's create data schemas!

A key component to any research project is data and making that data FAIR-compliant is our ultimate goal. However, many researchers today are creating minimal documentation of their data, maybe just enough to pass the requirements of the data management plan (DMP), and maybe the requirements of a data repository. In many situations, researchers may be relying on data repositories or archives to create the necessary documentation to make their data FAIR or are just not concerned about it.

At the University of Guelph, we are encouraging and enabling our researchers to create data schemas at the start of their project (before data collection). The schemas are created using our Semantic Engine and the newly developed Overlays Capture Architecture. Data schemas may be stored, shared, edited, and are all uniquely identified. Imagine a large 5yr research project using the same data schemas and data entry forms across all their students and research associates? The time that can be saved when pooling all the data for analysis is immense. Imagine being able to confirm that the data you just discovered was indeed the one created by the Project Lead 10 years ago and not altered in anyway?

This workshop will walk you through the development of the Semantic Engine tools and provide hands on experience creating your own data schemas. We will work with a sample dataset and demonstrate how we can build the layers of a schema, how they are uniquely identified, how you can share them, build upon an existing schema, and how we can create a data entry Excel file for the project. We will close the workshop with a discussion about current and future development and possible uses within the broader research ecosystem - just think how AI could use these schemas?