The echoSMs project has developed a prototype anatomical data storage system that we are requesting feedback on.
The aim of the data storage system is to provide a place to store scattering model input data and optionally, raw data used to get the input data. This includes organism shapes, material properties, metadata, raw image files, processing scripts, etc. We want to facilitate the reuse of anatomical data for scattering models, so these data will be publicly accessible, either via files that can be downloaded or via a web API (for use from programs).
The storage system will contain multiple datasets. Each dataset will contain data from a modelling and/or data collection activity (e.g., project or experiment) but is restricted to one species per dataset (different datasets can contain data from the same species). Each dataset can contain data from multiple specimens and includes the shape and material properties that scattering models need.
Further details on the proposed system are available here. The ICES Data Centre has provisionally offered to host the data.
We have a prototype structure for datasets, formally described using a JSON schema document (and an interactive version of it). However, it is more easily understood by looking at an example (this contains data from the Clay & Horne (1994) paper).
We are especially interested in feedback on:
Data structure
- Does the data structure seem sensible and appropriate?
- Are there attributes that you think are missing?
- Are there attributes that you don’t see the point of?
- Do you have additions to the enumerated attributes (e.g. length_type)?
Data access
- Do the web API endpoints make sense to you?
- Is the web API something you would use?
Testing
- If you have some suitable model data, we would appreciate any feedback from trying to create a dataset file as per the example above.
Feedback by the end of September would be appreciated, but anything after that won’t be ignored 
Regards
Gavin Macaulay and Mike Jech