Swiss-Polar-Institute/science-cruise-data-management v0.1.0

• Main Authors: Pina Estany, Carles, Thomas, Jenny
• Format: Software
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Django; Python; research cruise; data management; Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition; ACE; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; British Antarctic Survey; Swiss Polar Institute
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/3360649; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3360649

Django and Python are used to build an application supported by a relational database (in this case Mysql/MariaDB). This application enables the recording of metadata (and a few select and specific data sets) about samples and data collected during a research expedition. It is primarily aimed at recording what is undertaken on board a research vessel, but could be used and / or adapted for use during any kind of science programme. Models are based on those used by NERC's British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) and British Antarctic Survey, using BODC, SeaDataNet and Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) / Directory Interchane Format (DIF) vocabularies. Whilst originally intended to be a generic application, being tight on time meant that some things were hard-coded where it would have been better to make them non-specific to the particular expedition. For future use, it would be important to refactor the code to improve performance. The application was used in this state for collection of information about around 4,000 data collection events and almost 30,000 samples during the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE). The Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition was made possible by funding from the Swiss Polar Institute and Ferring Pharmaceuticals.