Using RDF and Git to Realize a Collaborative Metadata Repository

• Published in: Building Continents of Knowledge in Oceans of Data: the Future of Co-Created EHealth Vol. 247; p. 556
• Main Authors: Stöhr, Mark R, Majeed, Raphael W, Günther, Andreas
• Format: Book Chapter Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom SAGE Publications, Limited 2018
• Subjects: Data Warehousing; Metadata; Software; common data elements; data pooling; metadata; Biological ontologies; organization and administration
• ISBN: 1614998515; 9781614998518
• ISSN: 0926-9630
• DOI: 10.3233/978-1-61499-852-5-556

The German Center for Lung Research (DZL) is a research network with the aim of researching respiratory diseases. The participating study sites' register data differs in terms of software and coding system as well as data field coverage. To perform meaningful consortium-wide queries through one single interface, a uniform conceptual structure is required covering the DZL common data elements. No single existing terminology includes all our concepts. Potential candidates such as LOINC and SNOMED only cover specific subject areas or are not granular enough for our needs. To achieve a broadly accepted and complete ontology, we developed a platform for collaborative metadata management. The DZL data management group formulated detailed requirements regarding the metadata repository and the user interfaces for metadata editing. Our solution builds upon existing standard technologies allowing us to meet those requirements. Its key parts are RDF and the distributed version control system Git. We developed a software system to publish updated metadata automatically and immediately after performing validation tests for completeness and consistency.