Speaker
Description
The PSI Data Catalog is Paul Scherrer Institute’s data archiving, sharing, and publishing repository. It is built around SciCat, an open source scientific metadata catalog developed by a collaboration of various international institutes and research facilities. The catalog enables research data management aligned with FAIR principles at PSI large scale facilities, including the Swiss Light Source, Swiss Free Electron Laser, SINQ neutron source, and Swiss Muon Source. This talk will explore the latest updates to SciCat and PSI research data infrastructure.
Recent developments have focused on integrating the PSI Data Catalog with the broader Open Research Data (ORD) landscape through the ORD initiative of the Swiss Federal ETH Domain, targeted at improving and enabling better FAIR and ORD practices among the scientists. Federated login has been implemented in the catalog through the EduGAIN network, improving interoperability with users and services beyond PSI. Connections to other services are also being strengthened, including electronic lab books (OpenBIS, SciLog), complementary repositories (Zenodo, EnviDat, DataSwiss), and processing platforms (Renku, AiiDa). Sharing of metadata is enabled through open formats including JSON-LD, RO-Crate, and the ELN file format, with data transfer facilitated through Object Storage using the S3 protocol.
Much of these developments are facilitated by new features in the latest SciCat versions. After a lengthy migration process, PSI is now using SciCat version 5. Tying SciCat into a diverse ecosystem of interoperable services has been enabled through the highly configurable features of SciCat, including the customizable job system, new UI components, and flexible frontend configuration. By connecting facilities, services, and researchers through open standards and interoperable infrastructure, SciCat is helping advance FAIR and Open Research Data practices across the wider research community.
