Include ODRL based policy part

[HLWeil]

Parallel to the plans of including an ODRL file in the ARC Scaffold, there should also be an alternative part in the ARC RO-Crate.

This should be pretty straight forward. The ODRL file will be formatted in JSON-LD and the top-level object will be a policy (i.e. a collection of rules). We could reference this ODRL part from the RO-Crate root dataset through the hasPolicy property.

flowchart TD

rootDataset[ARC/Investigation]

study[Study]
assay[Assay]
workflow[Workflow]
run[Run]
odrl[ODRL Policy]

rootDataset --hasPart--> study
rootDataset --hasPart--> assay
rootDataset --hasPart--> workflow
rootDataset --hasPart--> run
rootDataset --hasPolicy--> odrl

Loading

[HLWeil]

@floWetzels @feserm @arendd @muehlhaus @joshmoore

[floWetzels]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to discuss this (probably rather here), but what is the advantage over simple license files? This might be a very basic question, I am not an expert on this topic. Can you elaborate on this, @HLWeil?

Regarding the technical part, I don't see a big issue here. I'm not a big fan of making the investigation a Policy, but I'm also not strictly opposed to it. It seems counterintuitive. It could simply be a lack of understanding from my side of the specific interpretation of the term policy though. However, I would argue that the diagram is a slight misrepresentation. Should the ODRL policy really be on the same level of "importance" as studies, assays or workdlows?

[HLWeil]

what is the advantage over simple license files

The advantage is twofold:

• ODRL provides a flexible datamodel, allowing users to create an individual rule set if necessary. Of course this is only of importance if the rules differentiate from generic, available licenses
• The machine readability of ODRL in JSON-LD provides means to actually automatically act on the rules specified. If not by enforcing them then at the very least by searchability. So Users are more likely to find Datasets they are actually eligible to download/use.

making the investigation a Policy

Sorry for the confusion. The ARC/Investigation is not a policy itself but, points to the policy via the hasPolicy property.

Should the ODRL policy really be on the same level of "importance" as studies, assays or workdlows?

Well the diagram is not necessarily about importance, just placement. It refers to the whole ARC, so why put it somewhere else?