Data Management and License Policy in EEGBase
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1
University of West Bohemia, Czechia
EEGBase (http://eegdatabase.kiv.zcu.cz) is a web repository of Electroencephalography (EEG) and Event-Related Potentials (ERP) experiments. These experiments produce large amounts of heterogeneous data. To give these data meaning they are described by accompanying metadata.
We have tested several approaches to express metadata. As an initial step we defined an ontology (Jezek et al., 2012) describing data produced in our laboratory. Because EEGBase had initially stored data only in a common relational database and we had needed to transfer them to Semantic web technologies, we designed and implemented a Semantic Framework software tool (Ježek et al., 2015). Semantic Framework maps data from common technologies (relational database, object-oriented model) to semantic web languages as Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Web Ontology Language (OWL). The usage of the Semantic Framework enables semantic web readers to access data stored in EEGBase using the RDF and OWL output directly. Moreover, the data produced in the RDF/OWL format enabled the registration of EEGBase repository as a data source within the NIF registry (Jezek, et al. 2011).
Despite benefits that the usage of Semantic Framework brought we were facing difficulties with inflexibility of the relational data model and user interface (UI) as collaborative researchers expressed their interest to use the system for various experiments. In addition, we also extended the scope of the laboratory for different experiments including electrocardiogram (EKG), muscle activity, motion abilities measurements, etc.
As a result, we changed/extended the used terminology and ontology, data repository and user interface. The NoSQL database Elasticsearch was deployed to store experimental metadata. The relational database stayed for the data such as user accounts, where a relational integrity is required. Combination of the relational database and NoSQL database ensures both stability and data integrity of the system core and sufficient flexibility for experimental metadata.
Efforts to provide a standard description of electrophysiology domain resulted e.g. in definition of odML terminologies (Grewe et al., 2010), the Neuroscience information exchange format (NIX) (https://github.com/G-Node/nix) and in the development of the Ontology for Experimental Neurophysiology (OEN) (Franc Le et al., 2014).
Because OEN is not finished yet, we extended odML terminologies by metadata used in EEGBase and integrated odML into EEGBase. The resulted terminology containing almost 60 terms then describes almost any electrophysiological experiment.
To facilitate the use of this terminology when entering metadata we decided to implement a system of user templates varying for different users and experiments. The described terminology then serves as a set of default terms offered to the user in the user interface. Moreover, the user can modify this set according to the needs in specific experiments. Such a modified set of terms can be saved as a template and used repeatedly.
With rising interest in downloading experimental data a suitable license policy has to be implemented. The data produced in our laboratory are usually provided under “Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License”. The EEGBase users who would like to provide their own experiments have two following options. They can create a free account but all uploaded data must accept a “free” data license policy. If the user wants to provide his/her data for a fee, he/she must pay for the account. The paid account is active for a restricted time period only. When this period expires, the user is asked to pay for a new period. If the user does not prolong the paid account, the license for the data is changed to a free license until the paid account is restored. Once data are downloaded under a free license, the license policy for their users who downloaded them is not changed even if the data owner changes the license by paying for the account later.
Acknowledgements
The work was supported by the project “Technological validation of the results of research and development CZ.1.05/3.1.00/14.0298“.
References
Grewe, J., T. Wachtler, and J. Benda. "odML format and terminologies for automated handling of (meta) data." Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Neuroinformatics. Vol. 2010. 2010.
Jezek, Petr, and Roman Moucek. "Semantic web in eeg/erp portal: ontology development and nif registration." Biomedical Engineering and Informatics (BMEI), 2011 4th International Conference on. Vol. 4. IEEE, 2011.
Jezek, Petr, and Roman Moucek. "Ontology development in EEG/ERP Portal."Biomedical Engineering and Informatics (BMEI), 2012 5th International Conference on. IEEE, 2012.
FRANC, Y. L., BANDROWSKI, A., BRŮHA, P., PAPEŽ, V., GREWE, J., MOUČEK, R., TRIPATHY, S. J., WACHTLER, T. Describing neurophysiology data and metadata with OEN, the Ontology for Experimental Neurophysiology. Leiden, 2014.
Ježek, Petr, and Roman Mouček. "Semantic framework for mapping object-oriented model to semantic web languages." Frontiers in neuroinformatics 9 (2015).
Keywords:
EEGbase,
web portal,
data metadata management,
Semantic Framework,
Data License,
Data template
Conference:
Neuroinformatics 2015, Cairns, Australia, 20 Aug - 22 Aug, 2015.
Presentation Type:
Poster, not to be considered for oral presentation
Topic:
Electrophysiology
Citation:
Jezek
P and
Mouček
R
(2015). Data Management and License Policy in EEGBase.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
Neuroinformatics 2015.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2015.91.00001
Copyright:
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Received:
20 Apr 2015;
Published Online:
05 Aug 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Petr Jezek, University of West Bohemia, Plzeň, Czechia, jezekp@kiv.zcu.cz