News Digest – RDM in Natural Science: Week 04, 2025
Recording – Community Meeting V
The recording of the last community meeting of eLabFTW was published to YouTube. In the first part of the meeting Dr. Alexander Schlemmer, from IndiScale, presented on ways how to extract information from the ELN-File Format to get this information automatically in the software LinkAHead. I probably should give some more information in case you are unfamiliar with the ELN-File Format.
The idea behind the ELN-File Format is that is there should be a way to get (meta)data from one electronic lab notebook (ELN) into another one, by using a standardised file format, which the ELN can export and read. To develop this file format, The ELN Consortium was formed. It consists of different ELN development groups, e.g. eLabFTW and Chemotion ELN are part of the consortium. For more information, check here:
https://github.com/TheELNConsortium
In the second part of the meeting, new features for future eLabFTW releases were shown. There is excellent news for all researchers working with chemicals. Firstly, with Ketcher a much better chemical structure editor will be available in eLabFTW. Which allows drawing of much more complex structures. And secondly, there will be a new feature called “compunds” where you can handle all your chemicals. This can basically be your chemical database. You can then link from e.g. experiments to the specific compound. Check out the video below to learn more about the new features and them in action:
Recordings – FAIRmat user meeting June 2024
In June 2024 there was the FAIRmat user meeting and now recordings of talks from the meeting are available on YouTube. Browse the playlist and check out the videos on different topics like. You find information about NOMAD, NOMAD Oasis, but als insides on research data management in collaborative research centres as well as catalysis research. For more information, check the event page: https://events.fairmat-nfdi.eu/event/16/.
Zenodo Uploads
The latest version (v1.6.0) of NOMAD CAMELS was published, for the full release notes check their GitHub:
https://github.com/FAU-LAP/NOMAD-CAMELS/releases/tag/v1.6.0
NOMAD CAMELS: Configurable Application for Measurements, Experiments and Laboratory Systems [Software]
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14719596
New central repository – Repo4Cat
NFDI4Cat announced their latest tool the NFDI4Cat central Repository Repo4Cat. You can read more about the repository as well as find links to the repository and a demo instance in their article:
https://nfdi4cat.org/en/launch-of-the-nfdi4cat-central-repository/
If I understood it correctly, there are four different working areas: project, organizations, personal dataverses and single publications. Depending on the working area, you can work with your own data (without publishing), share it with colleagues and, of course, publish it. I am curious to see how the new repository will be used, what kind of data we will see there, and how it will integrate with other tools.
PID gateway API
Not only a new repository was announced by NFDI4Cat, they also provide a new PID gateway API to facilitate the usage of persistent identifiers. Read all about it in their article:
https://nfdi4cat.org/en/facilitating-persistent-identifiers-pids-for-catalysis-research/
Zenodo upload
The latest version of the voc4cat-tool was published. The voc4cat-tool is a user-friendly tool to maintain the voc4cat vocabulary using Excel files. You can find the full release notes at their GitHub:
https://github.com/nfdi4cat/voc4cat-tool/releases
nfdi4cat/voc4cat-tool: Release 0.8.7 [Software]
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14740816
Announcement of FAIR4Chem awardee
Congratulations to Dr Daniel Kowalczyk (University of Ulm) for recieving this years FAIR4Chem award. The award will be awarded at the JCF Spring Symposium in Münster. Check the NFDI4Chem webpage for more information:
https://www.nfdi4chem.de/daniel-kowalczyk-wins-fair4chem-award/
The FAIR4Chem Award is awarded since 2022 by NFDI4Chem, if you would like to know more about the past awardees check the NFDI4Chem Hall of Fame:
https://www.nfdi4chem.de/fair-data-hall-of-fame/
There are also recordings of talks of the awardees at the NFDI4Chem Stammtisch available on YouTube, check out the following playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n7I1Gr9LTM&list=PLMixNndus4A30WkzmxjZTGlQ1PuLc1evN&pp=gAQB
Videos for Training Courses
Last week, I already mentioned that NFDI4Earth is providing more and more videos for their training courses. The list of videos is still growing, so definitely worth checking them out. Here again the link to the YouTube playlist provided by NFDI4Earth here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMEHbJR6bDI&list=PLl0Z002DBG8mle7kkTTdrcqcfpMixsHlj
Collaboration with DECHEMA: RDM Training Courses
I am very excited to announce that I will offer three workshops via DECHEMA continuing education (https://dechema-dfi.de/en/education.html). All workshops will be on the topic of research data management, but with different focuses. The first workshop in June (2 days, 4 hours each day) will be all about the basics of RDM and how to use it to your advantage. In October, there will be more specialised workshops: The first one is a follow-up on the basics, and is taking a closer look at data publications, as well as funder and journal requirements. The second one will be about one of my favourite topics, electronic lab notebooks: How to select the right one, how to use it, how to establish it and much more.
All workshops have in common that they will be focused on hands-on exercises with the goal to leaving you with real practical advice you can directly use. All workshops will be in German. The registration is open now, and I hope to see some of you there. Here are more details and the links:
26.06.-27.06.2025 – Forschungsdatenmanagement I – Grundlagen und Praxis für eine nachhaltige Datenstrategie
30.10.2025 – Elektronische Laborbücher: Auswahl, Einführung und Praxis
That is it for today, I hope you found something useful. Thank you very much for reading, sharing and linking the weekly News Digest. I could notice much more engagement with the weekly updates since I moved them to Monday morning. Thank you so much.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week.
Benjamin
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My name is Dr. Benjamin Golub-Overbeck, and I offer training and consulting services in research data management, particularly for the natural and life sciences. Are you unsure about your research data management practices? Do you want to stay updated on the latest developments or explore new workflows, such as implementing an electronic lab notebook? Or do you just need an introduction to FAIR data management?
With The FAIR Elephant, I can help you find tailored solutions to meet your needs. Contact me at thefairelephant@posteo.de—because your data deserves it!