About
What it is

ARGOS is the joint effort of OpenAIRE and EUDAT to deliver an open platform for Data Management Planning that addresses FAIR and Open best practices and assumes no barriers for its use and adoption.

It is an open extensible service - available as a standalone service (OpenDMP) and as a OpenAIRE service (ARGOS) - that simplifies the management, validation, monitoring and maintenance of Data Management Plans. It allows actors (researchers, managers, supervisors etc) to create actionable DMPs that may be freely exchanged among infrastructures for carrying out specific aspects of the Data management process in accordance with the intentions and commitment of Data owners.

ARGOS is a service that is integrated within the OpenAIRE platform and is freely offered for use through the OpenAIRE Service Catalogue and the EOSC Catalogue. ARGOS enhances the OpenAIRE Research Graph while at the same time utilises its underlying services, external sources and semantics to add value to the Dataset Description templates it produces thus increasing validation of DMPs. DMPs in ARGOS are treated as research outputs that can be assigned DOIs, licenses and can be re-distributed in a FAIR manner.

The Name: ARGOS is inspired by Greek mythology, both from Argus Panoptes the hundred-eyed giant and from Argus (Argonaut) builder of Argos ship, for the many-eyes monitoring sense and for the crafting and building for endurance concealing long-term goals.

How it works

Research Data Management (RDM) is a vital part of Open Science that lies at the heart of European research for it increases the quality of produced data and ensures integrity and preservation of research outputs. RDM refers to activities undertaken throughout a research lifecycle, spanning from data collection to data process and analysis. Open Access and FAIR principles govern data activities today to foster data discovery, distribution and exploitation, thus accelerating scientific breakthroughs. Coronavirus vaccine is the ultimate example of what can be achieved in a short amount of time when data are openly shared across the global scientific community. RDM urges scientific practices to be adjusted in ways that enable data understandability and re-usability from both humans and machines; services and tools are realised or re-designed to support the shift towards Open and FAIR research outputs.

Argos is a service for creating and publishing plans that describe data management activities, commonly known as Data Management Plans (DMPs). The plans are produced as machine-actionable outputs (ma-DMPs), in the form of rich text documents, following Open and FAIR practices and are published in Zenodo. Argos supports RDM at the beginning of research for planning data activities to be performed, as well as throughout and at the end of research for documenting the steps and processes followed according to institutional or funder RDM requirements.

Dmp Lifecycle

Argos follows a full DMP publication lifecycle. Users create their DMPs and add descriptions for their datasets. DMPs and Datasets are created in private mode by default and can be shared with colleagues to facilitate the writing process. Datasets are added in DMPs per type and / or per scientific discipline that they concern. That way information is well-organized and it is easier to distinguish relevant information from a pool of data activities detailed in a single DMP record. Once created, DMPs and their Datasets are in draft status and are treated as living documents in the Argos environment, meaning that they can be versioned and updated at any time. When ready, users can validate and finalize their DMPs, including corresponding Datasets, and change their visibility status from private to open. Open DMPs in Argos are available and accessible to all from the Public Dashboards. To close the DMP lifecycle, Argos integrates Zenodo, so users are able to publish their DMPs directly from its environment.

Dmp Lifecycle Dmp Lifecycle
Argos consists of two main editors: the DMP editor and the Dataset editor. Both editors integrate OpenAIRE and ESOC APIs to ease the writing process and help create links with other outputs. Also, the editors incorporate a mechanism to enable compliance with the RDA DMP Common Standard.
The DMP editor embeds the Dataset editor to provide a holistic view of a project's scope, beneficiaries and data activities. Therefore, it guides users step-by-step into adding appropriate administrative information, selecting templates that correspond to research needs and requirements, and describing data activities.
The Dataset editor concerns information that is solely for datasets, such as how Open and FAIR principles have been applied to them throughout data management activities. It is the place to select RDM templates and start answering data questions. Moreover, the Dataset editor can be used independently at any time when new data are produced throughout a project lifetime. That allows users to quickly describe their new data and link them to existing DMPs in their dashboard.
Information contained in DMPs should be validated before being published. Validation at this stage checks for mandatory fields in the DMP and reports back when necessary information has not been provided by the user. Once the user adds all necessary information, validation is successful.
DMPs finalization is the process of locking working drafts of DMPs and publishing them, either just on the Argos platform or on Zenodo where they also get a DOI. It is possible for datasets contained in DMPs to be finalized independently. That is important especially for datasets that can not be shared openly, such as those of sensitive content. Before publishing DMPs, sensitive datasets can be detached from its core. That way data descriptions are equally protected form being openly shared along with the DMP content.
Argos ma-DMP outputs carry rich information that exceeds metadata provided in DMPs when they are created and deposited as plain texts. Argos applies the RDA DMP Common Standard to comply with global practices on the machine-actinability. This is important for two reasons:
I.
It enables researchers to switch platforms at any time and seamlessly work across different ma-DMP providers without losing vital information.
II.
Adds to the Scholarly Communication ecology and pushes for best practices in neighbour areas to keep up pace, e.g. deposit in repositories and classification of DMPs as data management plans and not as publications, reports or other outputs.
DMP editor DMP outputs Dataset editor Validated DMP Finalized DMP
Argos in the OpenAIRE ecosystem

Argos is hooked on the OpenAIRE ecosystem comprising a diverse set of services and tools for Open Science and Scholarly Communication, from technical to educational and consultative in nature. OpenAIRE services and tools are provided for immediate consumption by end-users, i.e. researchers, research communities, research performing or funding organizations and policymakers. Moreover, OpenAIRE services are exploitable by software engineers. Argos integrates other OpenAIRE services to maximise efficiency of operations in Open and FAIR ecosystems and to make connections that add value in Open Science at global scale. OpenAIRE services that Argos connects to are:

Useful Resources

Argos RDA output adoption:
https://www.rd-alliance.org/implementing-dmp-common-standard-argos-tool-madmps
Paper in the DaMaLOS conference:
https://repository.publisso.de/resource/frl:6423283
Webinar:
https://www.rd-alliance.org/implementing-dmp-common-standard-argos-tool-madmps (starts at 30:15)

More details on ARGOS as registered in the OpenAIRE services catalogue is available here: http://catalogue.openaire.eu/service/openaire.argos. ARGOS as a Data Management Planning tool within EOSC can be explored in the EOSC catalogue of services here: https://catalogue.eosc-portal.eu/service/openaire.argos

ARGOS is offered as a standalone service, where users can download the source code and co-brand it. Read more on how to implement that in the Resources section.