Home // ICIW 2012, The Seventh International Conference on Internet and Web Applications and Services // View article

Enhancing the Provability in Digital Archives by Using a Verifiable Metadata Analysis Web Service

Authors:
Jan Potthoff
Sebastian Rieger
Paul Christopher Johannes

Keywords: ELN; evidence; digital archive; digital signature; provenance

Abstract:
In a variety of research areas the requirements for good scientific practice demand a proper long-term archiving of the data produced and handled throughout scientific pro-cesses. While the documentation was traditionally written in paper-based laboratory notebooks, the increasing amount of digital data and corresponding metadata has led to the devel-opment of electronic laboratory notebooks (ELN). To ensure the integrity and authenticity of the data special mechanisms have to be established while being stored in the ELN and digi-tal archives for several decades. As different research areas use individual scientific tools in their processes, this paper de-scribes a generic data verification system to enhance the prov-ability of data and the corresponding metadata. The system was implemented using a Web service that uses multiple in-gress, verification and egress modules. By using the Web ser-vice presented in this paper, the provability of scientific data in digital archives is profoundly enhanced. By automatically evaluating the probative force of the data and metadata and adding the system’s digital signature as a result, the provabil-ity can be ensured by a separate third party that is trusted on the side of the ELN operator as well as the scientific communi-ty and jurisdiction.

Pages: 112 to 117

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2012

Publication date: May 27, 2012

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-3972

ISBN: 978-1-61208-200-4

Location: Stuttgart, Germany

Dates: from May 27, 2012 to June 1, 2012