Scientific Dissemination
For TA FRANK, 2024 was a year defined by publications and dissemination activities. A total of ten publications were released in 2024, ranging from presentations and datasets to journal articles. The first set of publications included the ing.grid article “A survey on the dissemination and usage of research data management and related tools in German engineering sciences” [1] and the corresponding dataset [2]. These works established the groundwork for a new Research Data Management (RDM) process, which was later elaborated in the ing.grid article “Matching Data Life Cycle and Research Processes in Engineering Sciences” [3]. The process is based on the requirements of researchers from engineering sciences, specifically tailoring it towards the everyday research in that domain. The associated data for this publication is also available [4].
The dissemination of JARVES, the digital data steward for engineering sciences, extended across NFDI4ING, the broader NFDI network, and beyond. Within NFDI, we contributed to the NFDI4ING CC41 Community Meeting [5], the NFDI4ING Conference 2024 [6], and the 1st Base4NFDI User Conference [7], where Jarves was introduced as an upcoming service within the Base4NFDI. Outside the NFDI ecosystem, Jarves was presented to the fdm.NRW initiative at the event “FDM-Werkstatt: Into the RDM Toolbox” [8] and to the community of scientific support personnel at the 112th Bibliocon in Hamburg [9].
Validation Phase Begins
In 2024, JARVES entered its alpha phase, functioning as a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to demonstrate the potential of a supporting RDM framework. This milestone enabled the start of the validation process for JARVES and its underlying concept. A Wizard-of-Oz-based proof-of-concept study marked the beginning of this validation. A corresponding article was published in early 2025 [10]. To assist other researchers in understanding our approach and possibly adopting our validation method, we also published the study’s guideline and protocol on Zenodo [11].
Approaching the Finish Line
As the first funding period of NFDI4ING concludes in 2025, significant efforts remain to ensure that all relevant information about JARVES’ concept and validity is made FAIR. Several additional publications are already in progress for 2025. First, the concept of JARVES and the resulting toolchain will be presented, motivated by a systematic literature review, and featured in the special issue of ing.grid for the 2023 NFDI4ING conference. Second, the guided RDM process introduced in “Matching Data Life Cycle and Research Processes in Engineering Sciences” [3] will undergo detailed validation. To achieve this, we have already interviewed participants from nearly all TU9 universities about their research processes and plan to conduct additional interviews in Q1 2025.
[1] A survey on the dissemination and usage of research data management and related tools in German engineering sciences https://doi.org/10.48694/inggrid.4073
[2] Engineering RDM Survey – Dataset https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7645547
[3] Matching Data Life Cycle and Research Processes in Engineering Sciences https://preprints.inggrid.org/repository/view/42/
[4] Dataset: Problem-centered interviews results for Matching Data Life Cycle and Research Processes in Engineering Sciences https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11198841
[5] Demonstration: Solving Archetype Frank’s Challenges – Introducing Jarves https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12806567
[6] Jarves: More guidance and less effort in RDM https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13747295
[7] Meet the digital data steward Jarves https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14162654
[8] Meet Jarves – The Joint Assistant for Research in Versatile Engineering Sciences https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10839103
[9] Jarves, the digital data steward from NFDI4Ing https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11185297
[10] Proof-Of-Concept-Studie für das FDM in den Ingenieur:innenwissenschaften: Ein Forschungsdatenmanagement-Rahmenwerk https://doi.org/10.37544/1436-4980-2024-11-12-57
[11] Research Data Management Framework – POC-Study: Guideline and protocol https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14205126
Tobias Hamann
