Efforts for the development of minimum information standards for research data in chemistry have to be addressed in an international context. Thus, Dr. Johannes Hunold (TIB) presented NFDI4Chem’s vision for terminologies and semantic annotation of research data in the “Gold Book project session” dedicated to the IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology (informally known as “Gold Book”) at the 51st IUPAC General Assembly, from August 9-15. In his talk Dr. Hunold outlined the impact and interdependence of the current development of chemistry terminologies and a terminology service by NFDI4Chem on the latest activities around the Gold Book. Participants of the session thoroughly discussed the results of the “Backup, Maintenance, and Redevelopment of the IUPAC Gold Book website” project and the next steps toward further semantification of the Gold Book and its role in the context of ontology development (see project “Development of an IUPAC Recommended Term Management System for Expansion of the Coverage of the IUPAC Compendium on Chemical Terminology“). The participants agreed that the Gold Book should continue to serve as a “source of truth” and uniform standard for the definition of relevant terms in the field of chemistry to be reused in chemistry ontologies whenever possible.
It was agreed that terminologies in particular play an important role in the implementation of the FAIR data principles and a sustainable RDM. The editing and semantic annotation of research data will be an elementary part of the everyday research process in the future. This will lay the foundation for machine-readable data and the application of methods such as machine learning.
Long-term, well-funded and community-driven infrastructure projects such as NFDI4Chem are important key players to support IUPACs mission in the implementation process of chemical standards in the digital domain.
With Prof. Dr. Christoph Steinbeck joining the CPCDS committee (Committee on Publications and Cheminformatics Data Standards) in January 2022, the NFDI4Chem consortium will be able to contribute even more directly to the standardisation of research data management in the field of chemistry.