Creating a National Vocabulary Service for Research Data Discovery

The Challenge

ANDS faced the challenge of enabling research communities to use common language for concepts in datasets. In related research fields, vocabularies and terminology can be diverse, making it difficult to create a common linked data and research data portal for efficient data exchange and collaboration. Without standardized vocabularies, the discovery, linking, understanding, and reuse of research data were severely limited.

A group of institutions approached ANDS requiring access to a vocabulary service that could support machine-to-machine operations for creating, managing, and querying vocabularies. However, building such a system presented significant challenges like developing fast and reliable infrastructure to support these services nationally and overseas, and creating an online widget for easy data tagging across diverse research fields. The system also needed to handle programmatic access while remaining user-friendly.Additionally, indexing and tagging needed to be applied to library catalogues and search portal data to provide consistent keywords for academic journal articles across diverse research fields. This was a complex task requiring seamless integration of vocabulary services with existing research infrastructure.

The Solution

Using Graphwise’s Knowledge Management Suite and collaborating with Australian research organizations, ANDS implemented a comprehensive vocabulary service consisting of multiple integrated modules.

The solution included vocabulary creation and management based on the PoolParty Thesaurus Server as the core platform. A publication backend and vocabulary repository access was implemented, using RDF4J Server with SPARQL Endpoints to enable programmatic access. The Linked Data API was realized using Epimorphics Elda/SISSVoc with custom support for SKOS vocabularies, ensuring standards-based interoperability.

Finally, a discovery portal was developed supporting versioning and licensing, as well as a widget for easy tagging of data, making the vocabularies accessible to end users and applications.

The development of the service was driven by the needs of project partners, with ongoing communication enabling better understanding of requirements and service enhancement. Key contributors to service development included The Integrated Marine Observing System, The Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network, The Atlas of Living Australia, The Bureau of Meteorology, Geoscience Australia, and The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

ANDS also supports the Australian Vocabulary Special Interest Group (AVSIG), which provides a forum for discussion and collaboration among vocabulary stakeholders.

The Impact

The new platform, Research Vocabularies Australia (RVA), makes it easy to find and use vocabularies while enabling Australian research organizations to publish, re-purpose, create, and manage their own controlled vocabularies.

Graphwise’s Knowledge Management Suite acts as the orchestrator and source of truth where concepts and vocabulary built from various data references can be recalled for research activities. The platform provides national and international access to vocabularies, ensuring research and educational data is easily accessible to communities across Australia and overseas.

By implementing controlled vocabularies that reflect agreement on terminology used to label concepts, ANDS has improved the discovery, linking, understanding, and reuse of research data. The vocabulary services execute automated programmatic operations supporting activities such as creating, managing, and querying vocabularies efficiently.

The platform successfully addresses the challenge of diverse terminology across related research fields by creating a common linked data and research data portal. This makes exchanging data and knowledge easier and collaboration more efficient.