Datasets

SciCat datasets are sets of metadata and can include several files which e.g. comprise a self-contained measurement - which is fully customizeable during ingestion of metadata. Users can search and view different formats (e.g. in tree, tables or as JSON) of the dataset and list them.

Features

A very handy feature is to group and tag datasets. Find here more details how to group them using tags.

Datasets can also be selected for several actions: One such action is the publication of that selection. For more details see publication of SciCat datasets. Generally, actions depend on what is implemented at your site and can cover a wide range from comprising them into a new datacollection of a custom type (see advanced documentation) to using that selection of datasets to run an analysis on them.

How to search for datasets

Datasets can be queried in several places:

• The search bar at the top of the page provides a quick free text search.
• The filter & conditions column on the left allow you to customize your filters and conditions, adjust the filters to those that you find interesting and define your own conditions making use of your specific scientific metadata.

The bar looks like this:

Filtering by conditions can be applied through the option box on the left.

If you chose "More Filters" a pop-up window appears where you can chose which of the filters you want to display. You can also add your own conditions as well (visible in the background under conditions):

Dataset details

The main tab shows the details of a dataset.

Dataset file listing

A dataset can have several associated files to it. They can be listed by clicking on the tab Datafiles just right to the Details tab:

Dataset attachments

Another tab is for the attachements of a dataset, e.g. PNG or TIFF images.

Simply follow the instructions to upload an image. The size is restricted to be below 16 MB.

View raw JSON data

Scientific meta data is shown in JSON under its section and looks like this:

Get raw JSON data

One can also get the JSON file via the swagger API. If set up, one can directly access the API endpoints of SciCat backend. Usually the address is in the form: my-scicat-instance.country/explorer, swagger is accessible via the explorer. One needs to authenticate by copying the token from the GUI into the field authorize, then find the dataset of interest, by trying it out it will display you dataset and you can download it in JSON format.

Edit Scientific meta data

If enabled, fields in the scientific metadata can be modified and edited by any member of the Owner Group of the data by hitting the "Edit" Icon. The user can add, remove or change metadata fields, every change will create a new record in the databse with it's history [feature is soon available again from 2025-07-02].