FAIR Data Services Version 1.24.0

We added a new event type in the audit log to show role assignment changes. This provdes greater traceability of administration actions in FAIR. The audit event details who made the assignment, what role they were in at the time, and what role was assigned to the user. A link is provided to the user’s profile page.

Our aim with FAIR is to provide a contact point for scientific resources in a wider network of web-based services by providing good inbound and outbound connections on the web. Datasets are research artifacts, implicitly linked into a wider community of websites and services. To date, it was possible to upload a file such as a PDF to a dataset as a shared resource, providing additional content enhancing the metadata available on that page. However, it is not always convenient or possible to keep static content like that updated. We have now added the ability to add links to a dataset view as an additional type of resource. This could a link to a related paper, an organisation or scientific group website.

One of our current product development themes is improving the connections across the DRE as we want to support users navigating from Workspaces to FAIR and back again as seamlessly as possible. Workspaces and Datasets are inherently linked by Data Access Requests which are always linked to a target Workspace. Work underway in Workspaces will enhance the support for Datasets that have come from FAIR but in the interim, we want to provide some way of linking back to FAIR Datasets and Data Access Requests. Data transfers already include machine readable dictionary-level metadata along with data files.

With this release we are adding an experimental “receipt” that provides human readable information about the dataset at the time of transfer (catalogue highlights and dictionary information) as well as information on the data transfer itself. The receipt provides direct links and URLs back to the Dataset and Data Access Request. Having considered a PDF format, we opted for the Markdown file format as it provided the most integrated way of displaying the link. This works with the new Markdown rendering feature of Workspaces.

This enhancement is preparatory work for the upcoming feature around dataset update notifications and re-transferring. When that feature is enabled, the data access request view may show multiple dates for transfers indicating when data had been transfered after a notified update.

Data Access Requests may be processed using custom business logic and integrations with third party systems. This enhancement supports customers who handle data transfers outside the DRE system. This might happen where data is delivered to a workspace from a third party system or manually by data stewards or even the user. In order to manage the correct life cycle state of the request in those cases, it is now possible to automate setting the transfer as “complete” using automation and the FAIR API.