The GFBio Terminology Service: enabling a research data management beyond data heterogeneity

Abstract

A primary goal of a research infrastructure for data management should be to enable efficient data discovery and integration of heterogeneous data. The German Federation for Biological Data (GFBio) was envisioned by this goal. The basic component, that enables such interoperability and serves as a backbone for such a platform, is the GFBio Terminology Service (GFBio TS). It acts as a semantic platform for accessing, developing and reasoning over terminological resources within the biological and environmental domain. A RESTful API gives access to these terminological resources in a uniform way regardless of their degree of complexity and whether they are internally stored or externally accessed through their web services. Additionally, a set of widgets with an intrinsic API connection are made available for an easy integration in applications and web interfaces. Based on the requirements of the GFBio partners, we describe the added value that is provided by the GFBio Terminology Service with practical scenarios but also, what challenges we still face. We conclude by describing our current activities and future developments.