METABOLATOR: Establishing a Citable Web Application for Automated Metabolic Load Analysis

METABOLATOR is a web application for automated analysis of microcalorimetric metabolic data using the Monod equation. It was developed in an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Department of Biophysics and the Department of Information Services and Computing at HZDR. The development of METABOLATOR was driven by the FAIR4RS principles. All research artifacts (software, example dataset, service) are published on Rodare to ensure findability and accessibility. PIDs are assigned to make the software and service citable in publications. The usage of permissive open source licenses allows for reuse of the components. The ability of METABOLATOR to load datasets from Invenio-based repositories via their DOIs simplifies reproduction of research results. The data formats we propose are a first step towards an open community standard. They are meant to spark further discussion and discourage proprietary formats and custom developments per group. Wider adoption could encourage an increase in data exchange and reuse, and facilitate interoperability of developed analysis tools. This poster describes our efforts using METABOLATOR to promote the FAIR and FAIR4RS principles in the microcalorimetry community within Helmholtz and beyond. It also shows how IT departments at the research centers can improve data management practices through infrastructure and consulting services.