Scientific data often originate from measurements carried out to investigate physical objects, e.g. samples, to gain insight into their internal composition or determine their properties. In these cases, the description of the sample is an essential part of the metadata to make the data that results from the measurement FAIR.

Many metadata standards for sample descriptions are available. However, most of them are limited to a particular type of sample within a specific scientific domain and are not applicable to others. Given the huge variety of physical objects investigated in the sciences, it is not realistic to come up with a common overarching standard that would be applicable to describe all kinds of samples.

This creates a challenge for repositories that need to host sample descriptions from all domains. One would at least need to know what kind of object it is in order to know which metadata standard would be suitable to describe it. A coarse, top-level classification scheme seems to be missing. Such a sample classification would need a standardised vocabulary that should preferably apply to all physical objects being studied in the sciences. This high-level classification should be separated from more detailed sample descriptions that will be discipline-specific.

This Birds of a Feather Session aims to determine whether the RDA community is interested in tackling the issue of sample type classification. It may lead to the formation of a working group that would develop a controlled vocabulary, taxonomy, or ontology for this purpose.

1) Introduction and problem statement – Rolf Krahl (10 min.)
2) Discussion of sample classification versus sample description (to provide clarity on the objective of the BoF) – all (10 min.)
3) Presentation of speakers (30 min.)
3a) Samples are everywhere – Kirsten Elger (10 min.)
3b) iSamples, updates on metadata standardisation efforts – Steve Richard (tbc) (10 min.)
3c) Research Vocabularies Australia – Rowan Brownlee (10 min.)
4) Discussion of use cases, links with existing vocabularies & vocabulary governance – all (30 min.)
5) Discussion on the way forward: RDA WG & OSCARS project – all (10 min.)

https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab028