Using FAIRsharing or Bio.tools ID to pull information about a tool or resource

[bedroesb]

Currently all info in the "tools and resources" table is manually entered through a spreadsheet. There is already automation in place to couple resources to there bio.tools or FAIRsharing id, if not provided through the spreadsheet. The idea during the Biohackathon Europe 2022 was to use these IDs and do a lookup and use information like url and description from bio.tools and FARIsharing using their respective API endpoints.

During the hackathon a proof of concept was made, including results if both bio.tools and FAIRsharing info would be used to populate the tool stable. Based on the results and discussions that followed after, we can summarize the following:

Pro:

• We as RDMkit do not need to keep track of information that is bound to change, and that in theory is taken care of by the mentioned registries
• We already do our best in keeping track of those IDs, we can than also really make use of theme

Con:

• Not all resources are in biio.tools/FAIRsharing, so keeping track of this information for a significant portion of the tools and resources will still be needed. This 'hybrid' use will not be ideal to communicate to contributors. Possible solution for this would be that we still keep for all of them track of everything in the tools table, but we ignore the manual information when a FAIRsharing or bio.tools ID is coupled. Disadvantage of this solution is that contributors might see another url/description than the one they have added in the spreadsheet.
• URLs on especially bio.tools are outdated or less secure (http variant)
• Descriptions on both bio.tools and FAIRsharing are very long compared to the descriptions we currently have in RDMkit

Current conclusion (17/02/2023)

Since the benefits for our audience and contributors/editors are rather limited, we decided to close the idea for now. Most of us editors appreciate the short, tailored descriptions on the RDMkit and the fact that our URLs are currently in a more up to date state than in the URLs does not help in switching over either. Keeping track of this information inhouse also means that we as editors can easily update information without asking for ownership/request changes in bio.tools or FAIRsharing.

Disclaimer
This conclusion can change over time when solutions for the disadvantages are fount. Everyone that can chip to improve this pro/cons list.