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Towards Machine-actionable FAIR Digital Objects with a Typing Model that Enables Operations

Maximilian Inckmann, Nicolas Blumenröhr, Rossella Aversa

TL;DR

The paper tackles the lack of machine-actionable interoperability in FAIR Digital Objects by introducing a graph-based typing model that unifies Atomic Data Types and Type Profiles under a common Data Type abstraction. It defines Attributes, Operations, Operation Steps, Technology Interfaces, and Attribute Mappings to enable type-associated, technology-agnostic interactions, and implements these ideas in the IDORIS prototype using Neo4j and a rule-based validation framework. Key contributions include inheritance-enabled reuse, bidirectional associations between data types and operations, and a robust validation system to ensure consistency and acyclicity. The work demonstrates feasibility with a running use-case and argues that the approach offers improved interoperability, reusability, and automation for research data management, paving the way for dynamic, reproducible workflows.

Abstract

FAIR Digital Objects support research data management aligned with the FAIR principles. To be machine-actionable, they must support operations that interact with their contents. This can be achieved by associating operations with FAIR-DO data types. However, current typing models and Data Type Registries lack support for type-associated operations. In this work, we introduce a typing model that describes type-associated and technology-agnostic FAIR Digital Object Operations in a machine-actionable way, building and improving on the existing concepts. In addition, we introduce the Integrated Data Type and Operations Registry with Inheritance System, a prototypical implementation of this model that integrates inheritance mechanisms for data types, a rule-based validation system, and the computation of type-operation associations. Our approach significantly improves the machine-actionability of FAIR Digital Objects, paving the way towards dynamic, interoperable, and reproducible research workflows.

Towards Machine-actionable FAIR Digital Objects with a Typing Model that Enables Operations

TL;DR

The paper tackles the lack of machine-actionable interoperability in FAIR Digital Objects by introducing a graph-based typing model that unifies Atomic Data Types and Type Profiles under a common Data Type abstraction. It defines Attributes, Operations, Operation Steps, Technology Interfaces, and Attribute Mappings to enable type-associated, technology-agnostic interactions, and implements these ideas in the IDORIS prototype using Neo4j and a rule-based validation framework. Key contributions include inheritance-enabled reuse, bidirectional associations between data types and operations, and a robust validation system to ensure consistency and acyclicity. The work demonstrates feasibility with a running use-case and argues that the approach offers improved interoperability, reusability, and automation for research data management, paving the way for dynamic, reproducible workflows.

Abstract

FAIR Digital Objects support research data management aligned with the FAIR principles. To be machine-actionable, they must support operations that interact with their contents. This can be achieved by associating operations with FAIR-DO data types. However, current typing models and Data Type Registries lack support for type-associated operations. In this work, we introduce a typing model that describes type-associated and technology-agnostic FAIR Digital Object Operations in a machine-actionable way, building and improving on the existing concepts. In addition, we introduce the Integrated Data Type and Operations Registry with Inheritance System, a prototypical implementation of this model that integrates inheritance mechanisms for data types, a rule-based validation system, and the computation of type-operation associations. Our approach significantly improves the machine-actionability of FAIR Digital Objects, paving the way towards dynamic, interoperable, and reproducible research workflows.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 19 sections, 4 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Typing Model
  4. Data Types
  5. Atomic Data Types
  6. Type Profiles
  7. Attributes
  8. Modeling FAIR Digital Object Operations
  9. Operations
  10. Operation Steps
  11. Technology Interface
  12. Attribute Mappings
  13. Model Implementation
  14. Graph database
  15. Rule-based validation and processing
  16. ...and 4 more sections

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: UML model class diagram of the complete typing model
  • Figure 2: Example of a complete FAIR-DO Operation
  • Figure 3: Excerpt from the Graph representing a FAIR-DO Operation stored in the database
  • Figure 4: Excerpt from the Graph representing Data Types in the graph database