Stewarding Research Data with Fedora

Abstract

Beyond the complexities faced by typical asset management or institutional repository systems, research data presents a number of complications, including complex hierarchies of related objects that must be modelled and displayed, a wider array of data formats that must be supported, and domainspecific metadata that is necessary to make data intelligible. Managing these complications often leads to software that is tailored to particular data, making it difficult to maintain or share. Fedora is a flexible, extensible, open source repository platform for storing, managing, and preserving digital content, including research data. Fedora is used in a wide variety of institutions including libraries, museums, archives, and government organizations. Fedora 4, the latest version of Fedora, supports research data management by providing key repository features such as support for millions of resources and files of any size, native linked data functionality, advanced data modeling, and preservation services. Fedora is also extremely well-suited to integrations with existing researcher workflows via a well-documented REST-API and event-based messaging service. Fedora’s interoperable design paved the way for integration with the Open Science Framework; a free, open source tool that connects with the applications and services researchers already use to support the entire research lifecycle. This paper will provide an overview of how Fedora support supports research data management, including integration with the OSF and the roadmap for future development and integrations.