RDM Infrastructure and Active Data Management: Integration of Data Applications by Interface Design

This paper addresses the problem of incorporating a steadily growing number of research software applications into an existing RDM infrastructure as well as transferring their diverse outputs to the existing storage systems using interface definitions. A sub-process in the general RDM infrastructure is proposed integrating a new software component, the data transfer facilitator (DTF), to facilitate data transfer to a standardized large-scale data repository. Each new research project that implements a research software registers at the DTF and receives an interface endpoint definition. Via this endpoint the DTF monitors any relevant changes to the data model and notifies the administrator if the endpoint definition has to be changed. The need for such a component becomes clear when considering the non-linear interrelationship between the number of tasks of a data curator and the number of research projects to be maintained. Neither is research data scalable at will, nor the curation tasks carried out on them. The main effect of additional (and probably needless) curation work is due to the inefficient transfer of data from the research application, in which data is collected and analyzed, to the data repository, in which the data is archived and made accessible. Formats and standards are rarely met and the timely shifts between the beginning and the end of a project promote information loss. During the time of a project, information on the specifics of the research application and the preparation of research data are seldom documented and, as a consequence, important information is lost towards the end of a project -- a time where usually the transfer of data to the archiving infrastructure takes place and for which, the information is indispensable. The DTF remedies this issue by simply treating the endpoint definition as if it was part of the original software that has to be fixed at the time of change.