Making geoscientific lab data FAIR: A conceptual model for a geophysical laboratory database

Abstract. The term of geoscientific laboratory measurements involves a variety of methods in geosciences. Accordingly, the resulting data comprise many different data types, formats, and sizes, respectively. Handling such a diversity of data, e.g., by storing the data in a generally applicable database, is difficult. Some discipline-specific approaches exist, but a geoscientific laboratory database that is generally applicable to different geoscientific disciplines is missing up to now. However, making research data available to scientists beyond a particular community has become increasingly important. Within a pilot project of the NFDI4Earth initiative, we developed a conceptual model for a geoscientific laboratory database. For being able to handle complex settings of geoscientific laboratory studies, flexibility and extensibility are key attributes of the presented approach. The model is intended to follow the FAIR data principles to facilitate interdisciplinary applicability. In this study, we consider different procedures from existing database models and include these methods in the conceptual model.