Welcome to the News Digest – RDM in Natural Science. Each week, I explore the latest developments in research data management, focusing specifically on natural sciences, and provide a concise overview. Let us dive right in.
eLabFTW
Release video for version 6.0
Last week I already linked to the information about the new version of eLabFTW (version 6.0, link to the blog from last week) now the release video is available, so take the 5 min and have a look right now:
NFDI4Chem
Over the last few years I had different cooperations with the NFDI4Chem, e.g. I supported them with creating a workshop concept early this year (see poster publication below). Now two more publications, where I could support the NFDI4Chem are available, and I am very excited to see these published. Please share the work by Annett Schröter et al. with your researchers and colleagues and let me know in the comments what you think.
RDM checklist for chemists
NFDI4Chem published eight checklists that support chemists with their data challenges by asking the right questions and providing useful information. Six of the checklists are about the different stages of the research, one is a tool checklist and the last checklist was specifically designed for PIs. Read more about the checklist on the NFDI4Chem webpage and check them out in Zenodo.
Link to the article on the NFDI4Chem webpage
Link to the checklists in Zenodo with DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21526324
README for data publications in chemistry
A chemistry-specific README template for data publications was published. More and more data is published by chemists, often in more generic repositories like Zenodo or institutional repositories. With this template, it is made easier to provide the chemistry-specific information, that is otherwise missing. Learn more from the article on the NFDI4Chem webpage.
Link to the article on the NFDI4Chem webpage
Link to the checklist in Zenodo with DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21619429
Poster about the chemistry-specific workshop concept
In March, the chemistry-specific RDM workshop concept was published (as mentioned in the introduction), in case you missed it or haven't had the chance to check it out, I would recommend to check out the recently published poster on the workshop concept.
Link to the poster in Zenodo with DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22662956
Report on the 4th Ontologies4Chem Workshop
In November 2025, the 4th Ontologie4Chem Workshop took place (which was covered in the past in this News Digest). Now the very detailed report of the workshop by Oliver Koepler et al. was published. So if you are working in the field of ontologies or are interested in the developments and want to know more about the Ontologie4Chem Canon then check out the report in Zenodo. I also link the short report on the NFDI4Chem webpage from November 2025.
Link to the report in Zenodo with DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22769404
Link to the article from December 2025 on the NFDI4Chem webpage
NFDI4Earth
Success of the NFDI4Earth Academy
The NFDI4Earth Academy is a success story of building a training AND networking program for early-career researchers. Please have a look at the latest report by Hildegard Gödde et al. on the academy. I think this is a good example on how to get to your target audience, well worth the time.
Link to the report in Zenodo with DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22772418
Connecting internationally
If you would like to learn more about how NFDI4Earth is internationally active and builds a network in the Earth System Sceinces beyond the borders of Germany, have a look at the latest report by Valentina Protopopova-Kakar and Wolfgang zu Castell.
Link to report in Zenodo with DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22772150
PSDI
AI in chemistry
In August, the 10th Chemical Sciences & Society Symposium on Data Science for Chemistry took place. The four key topics of the meeting were: Data Management, AI Based Models, Generative AI and Physical AI. You can read more about the meeting as well as the takeaways of Samantha Pearman-Kanza in an article on the PSDI webpage. The publication of a white paper is thin the work.
Link to the article on the PSDI webpage
Outro
If you find these weekly overviews useful, please like, and share them with your colleagues and if you want to support me even more, you can go over to my ko-fi page and buy a bag of peanuts for The FAIR Elephant. Your support is much appreciated.