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Introduction

Metadata

All the research produced in the CropXR consortium will be well annotated with metadata following the CropXR standards.

The metadata annotation will have multiple uses:

  • Findability of your study, by other researchers in the consortium
  • Reusability of your data by other users in the consortium
  • Improvement of your own data annotation

The responsibility to annotate the data lies with the researcher, with the help and tools provided by DataXR.

CropXR uses established standards for metadata on plant research, combining elements from:

  • ISA (Investigation-Study-Assay) framework for structuring research data
  • MIAPPE (Minimum Information About Plant Phenotyping Experiments) for phenotyping studies
  • ENA (European Nucleotide Archive) standards for sequencing data

Model flexibility

A standardized metadata format ensures that the metadata has a predictable structure. There are however many different types of studies in the consortium, with different metadata that is important. To fit all different studies in the same format there is a certain flexibility in the model.

This puts some responsibility on the researcher for how to use this format and to really understand the model. These documents should provide the information needed to make those choices. For the first time entering metadata, plan sufficient time to understand the model.

If you are stuck at any point, things are unclear, or you need help, please reach out to the DataXR team at data@cropxr.org

Catalogue

The metadata is from now on collected in the Catalogue website. In this catalogue people of the consortium can find studies, view and download the metadata, and view the associated data. In the catalogue, the data producing researchers can manage who can view their study. Follow the instruction for how to enter the metadata in the web interface.

For everyone who has already filled in metadata in the Excel templates, or is already in the process of filling in the metadata in the templates: If the template is available to the DataXR team, the entered metadata will imported into the catalogue. It is possible that you will be contacted with some questions about the metadata.

Data

The data storage is currently the Research Drive. In the near future this will be replaced with a different storage. The metadata will include a link to where the data is stored.