RADAR Release v1.23: TS4NFDI Integration completed

Published: 23.09.2025

With the current software release v1.23.1 (f), the integration of Terminology Service 4 NFDI (TS4NFDI) into RADAR has been successfully completed for the time being. From now on, standardized terms from curated terminologies can be selected and included in the “Keywords” metadata field. The function is available to data providers in RADAR Cloud, RADAR Local and in the NFDI-specific publication services RADAR4Chem, RADAR4Culture and RADAR4Memory - provided it has been activated beforehand by administrators or curators.

The implementation was the result of our participation in the incubator cycle of the NFDI base service TS4NFDI, which is coordinated by the Base4NFDI network (see RADAR News from 14.05.2025). The aim of TS4NFDI is to develop, curate and harmonize standardized terminologies across domains and make them available via interfaces for integration into existing services. To this end, TS4NFDI offers a sustainable service suite with API gateway, service wrapper, mapping services and reusable GUI widgets.

The integration in RADAR includes the following new features:

Enhancement of the metadata editor: When entering keywords, data providers are offered suitable standardized terms via typeahead via TS4NFDI interfaces and suggested as a drop-down list. The selection is made conveniently with a mouse click.
Optimized display on the landing page: Standardized terms and the associated ontologies are clearly displayed. TS4NFDI widgets provide additional information on the term, its context and links to further content.
Targeted findability: In the publication lists, users can now also filter by “keyword” and “ontology” - for a more precise search for relevant data records.

The improvements facilitate the metadata description through standardized, persistently identifiable, interoperable keywords and contribute to further increase the FAIRness of the RADAR datasets. They foster the sustainable findability and interpretability of research data and support their integration into knowledge graphs and other semantic infrastructures.

Activation and configuration in contract and workspace:

In order to make the new suggestion function for keywords available, it must first be activated by administrators or curators:

on Contract level: Activation by administrators in the “General and storage space” form
on Workspace level: Activation by curators or administrators in the “Edit workspace” form

One or more terminologies and complete ontology collections can be assigned for configuration. This is currently possible by entering the corresponding abbreviations or names (comma-separated, without spaces), as they can be found here. A more convenient selection via drop-down menu is planned for a future release.

Settings at workspace level have always priority over those at contract level - so individual adjustments to discipline-specific or project-specific requirements are possible.

Data providers are shown transparently under “Workspace information” whether and which ontologies or ontology collections are available for them.

Notes:

TS4NFDI integration is currently limited to the “Keywords” metadata field. An extension to other RADAR metadata fields is planned.

For technical reasons TS4NFDI is currently only linked to the TIB Terminology Service. This offers more than 220 ontologies as well as 15 curated, community-specific collections, e. g. for chemistry, engineering, humanities or materials science. In future, further terminology sources will be integrated into RADAR via the TS4NFDI API gateway, which is currently still under development.

Further information on all new features and improvements in RADAR Software Release v 1.23.1 (f) can be found here.

Note: This software release also affects the community-specific publicaion services for research data based on RADAR:

RADAR4Chem, funded by NFDI4Chem (DFG Project Number 441958208)
RADAR4Culture, funded by NFDI4Culture (DFG Project Number 441958017)
RADAR4Memory, funded by NFDI4Memory (DFG Project Number 501609550)