Galaxy and RDM

Being More Than a Workflow Manager: Living the Data Life Cycle

Abstract

The increasing amount of data generated by scientific research poses the challenge of providing an adequate infrastructure and tools that facilitate FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) data access, manipulation, analysis and visualization. Often, the burden of managing the metadata associated with the original data and the analysis lies with the researchers. 

The open source Galaxy platform [1] is well-known for supplying tools and workflows for reproducible and transparent data analysis across scientific disciplines. It is a multi-user environment which facilitates sharing of e.g. tools, workflows, notebooks, visualizations, and data with others. There are three large Galaxy instances (US, Europe [2] and Australia) used by hundreds of thousands of researchers worldwide and that are using PBs of data. Galaxy handles the metadata transparently, releasing scientists from the burden and making it less prone to human errors. These features can be used without technical background by using a web browser or, for experts, through the Galaxy API.