Organizing Scientific Knowledge from Engineering Sciences Using the Open Research Knowledge Graph: The Tailored Forming Process Chain Use Case

Abstract

Background: Engineering sciences are essential for addressing contemporary technical, environmental, and economic challenges. Despite its data-intensive and interdisciplinary nature, the organization of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) scientific knowledge and data in this research field remains understudied. Engineers need infrastructures with services that support them in organizing FAIR scientific knowledge and data for communication and (re-)use. Aim: We explore the use of the Open Research Knowledge Graph (ORKG) as such an infrastructure by demonstrating how engineers can utilize the ORKG in innovative ways for communication and (re-)use. Method: For a use case from the Collaborative Research Center 1153 “Tailored Forming”, we collect, extract, and analyze scientific knowledge on 10 Tailored Forming Process Chains (TFPCs) from five publications in the ORKG. In particular, we semantically describe the TFPCs, i.a., regarding their steps, manufacturing methods, measurements, and results. The usefulness of the data extraction topics, their organization, and the relevance of the knowledge described is examined by an expert consultation with 21 experts. Results: Based on the described knowledge, we build and publish an ORKG comparison as a detailed overview for communication. Furthermore, we (re-)use the knowledge and answer eight competency questions asked by two domain experts. The validation shows a clear agreement of the 21 experts regarding the examined usefulness and relevance. Conclusions: Our use case shows that the ORKG as a ready-to-use infrastructure with services supports researchers, including engineers, in sustainably organizing FAIR scientific knowledge. The direct use of the ORKG by engineers is feasible, so the ORKG is a promising infrastructure for innovative ways of communicating and (re-)using FAIR scientific knowledge in engineering sciences, thus advancing this research field.