General idea of the system
Functionality
Omega-PSIR covers the lifecycle of the whole research process, starting from project proposals, through projects, to various achievements, such as publications, reports, prototypes, software, patents, research data etc. All the objects are linked to each other, building a kind of a semantic network.
As for CRIS functionality, OMEGA-PSIR has predefined object types. The system makes it possible to collect descriptions (metadata) of the basic achievements of scientific and research activities of researchers. The data may be harvested from global databases (like Scopus, WoS, PubMed), from other university databases, or may be entered manually. The data structures of the system reflect the concept of the CERIF data exchange format for scientific activities.
Therefore, the construction of the Knowledge Base is based on three basic data structures:
Description of the university units and the structural relationship
Description of scientists, PhD students and (optionally) diploma students
Description of the achievements of scientists, doctoral students and students - effects of scientific activity
The description of the university's structure is related to the research infrastructure:
laboratories
research equipment
Moreover, the activities of the university as a whole cover
published journals
organized conferences
seminars
The presentation of a scientist and his/her achievements is carried out by recording:
text documents
publications (articles, books, scripts),
diploma theses (engineering, master's, doctoral)
reports
translations
works (architectural works, artwork)
research data
applications for projects
projects
patents
professional activity
prizes and awards
technologies, products, implementations
As the system covers the entire process related to scientific activity, competitions and awards announced by institutions financing grants (funders) can optionally be registered in the system.
Data structures are defined in XML. Their semantics is, on the one hand, subordinated to the university needs and, on the other hand, to international standards. In terms of bibliographic descriptions, this applies to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR), and in terms of enabling harvesting bibliographic data, it is the Dublin Core format.
Data structures are made available in the form required by the Semantic Web concept, i.e. in the form of Linked Open Data (LOD).