SciDataMover: Moving Geochemistry Data from the Lab through to Publication

The SciDataMover platform is a discipline- and scale-agnostic, lightweight, open source Data Movement Platform that transfers data, coupled with metadata from laboratories to shared workspaces then to repositories. The SciDataMover Platform leverages lightweight existing technologies that have a demonstrated capacity to be sustainably managed and can be affordably maintained.

Despite significant investments in analytical instruments in Australian research laboratories relevant to earth sciences and particularly geochemistry, there has been underinvestment in storage and efficient, lossless transfer of data from ‘Private’ lab instruments to ‘Collaboration’ domains where researchers can analyse and share data, and then persist it to trusted ‘Publication’ domains where researchers can persistently store the data that supports their scholarly publications.

SciDataMover is a FAIR data movement platform that enables data from instruments to move in a scalable and sustainable manner and comprises:

1) a data service to transfer data/metadata directly from instruments
2) collaboration areas to process, refine, standardise and share this data
3) a mechanism to transfer data supporting publications to a trusted repository (e.g., domain, institutional).

The Platform, being built off existing components will enable researchers to have readily available access to laboratory data when and where they need it, along with the ability to collaborate with colleagues even during a pandemic where physical distancing is required. The benefits of SciDataMover are long term persistence of laboratory-generated data (at various stages from minimally processed to final published form), greater collaboration efficiency and enhanced scientific reproducibility.