FAIR research data management, especially interoperability (I), requires that research data and metadata can be interpreted by machines. Semantically rich metadata can be created on the basis of the web standard RDF in order to fulfil the I in FAIR. We have developed tools in various contexts to support the creation of such metadata. We use shacl to define application profiles that also contain their possible value ranges and can be used to validate the entries.

The ULB Darmstadt is part of the AIMS project, where the Metadata Profile Service was developed. This allows application profiles for research data to be created via a graphical web interface and made available for others. The profiles are created by reusing terms from existing ontologies and vocabularies to enable a high level of interoperability.

The Shacl-Form Generator automatically creates a suitable web form for entering metadata on the basis of an application profile. By defining the application profile in shacl, e.g. via Metadata Profile Service, suitable input elements are automatically displayed for the possible input values. The metadata is then entered in a web form. The metadata can then be exported as RDF or forwarded to other services. The generator can be integrated into existing applications. The code is available on Github, the generator can be tested in a Demo.

In research projects, data is often collected in tabular form. With the csv-to-rdf tool, this data can be mapped to an existing application profile so that RDF-based data is created from the table. The profile must be defined in shacl. The code is available on Github and can be tested in a Demo.