Documentation of epistemic metadata by a mid-level ontology of cognitive processes
Martin Horsch, Björn Schembera · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2022
Epistemic metadata, i.e., knowledge and validity claims, provenance descriptions, and grounding of research conclusions, contain information that is relevant to substantiating the knowledge status of data. They constitute the annotation required for communicating interpretations that raw research outcomes are given by researchers, and for making these interpretations intelligible and acceptable to others. Therefore, epistemic metadata are that which needs to become FAIR whenever epistemic opacity and darkness of data are to be avoided. The present work addresses the challenge of documenting epistemic metadata in a way that integrates well into the pre-existing semantic landscape from national research data infrastructures and European digitalization platforms such as those related to EOSC and EMMC ASBL. It is explored how an ontology that formalizes cognition in a way inspired by the triadic structure of Peircean semiotics can advance FAIRness of epistemic metadata and support the development of materials digitalization platforms such as molecular modelling interoperability infrastructures.