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Science cluster & challenges

SSHOC - Social Sciences and Humanities
Software, AI & tools

Summary

FASCA builds on the GoTriple platform, a multilingual discovery service developed as an EOSC service by the TRIPLE project led by OPERAS* Research Infrastructure (RI) and catering specifically to the needs of researchers in the domains of the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). GoTriple provides SSH researchers with access to over 15 million publications and datasets, promoting international collaboration and Open Science. The FASCA project enhances this platform by integrating data science tools to support comprehensive analysis of scholarly communication, with a specific focus on linking research to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through two pilot studies, the project aims to deliver FAIR-compliant research outputs, including publications, data, and code, while establishing a sustainable support GoTriple-based service for data-driven SSH research.

*OPERAS is the RI supporting open scholarly communication in SSH across the European Research Area. Its mission is to coordinate and federate both technical and non-technical resources in Europe. OPERAS is an ESFRI on the path to become an ERIC in 2027. It is part of the SSH Open Cluster with its representative in the SSHOC Governance Board.

Research domains:
Social Sciences and Humanities
Partner(s):
OPERAS, Instytut Badan Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk (IBL-PAN), NET7 SRL, The University Court of Abertay University (AU), Foxcub
Project team member(s):
Suzanne Dumouchel (OPERAS), Mandy Lin (OPERAS), Tomasz Umerle (IBL-PAN), Cezary Rosiński (IBL-PAN), Nikodem Wolczuk (IBL-PAN), Luca De Santis (Net7), Julien Homo (Foxcub), Kévin Darty (Foxcub), Stefano De Paoli (AU)

Challenge

Open Science project, Open Science Service

The need for accessible and comprehensive research tools in the SSH has become increasingly evident as scholars struggle to navigate a vast array of multilingual resources. Traditional research methods often fall short of leveraging the full potential of large datasets and diverse research outputs. Moreover, there is a growing demand for making scholarly communication more aligned with global challenges such as the SDGs. Without efficient tools for data-driven research, the SSH community faces obstacles in fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations and ensuring Open Science practices.

Solution

FASCA aims to establish a data science support service for multilingual data-driven research with data science assistance, by implementing a pipeline for comprehensive research support through tailored, personalised services. It will run two pilot research projects dedicated to investigating the relationship between scholarly communication and SDGs. Selected teams will get access to support from the Data Science team, publish their manuscript/preprint, data and code in a FAIR-compliant way. The pilots will be used to test and develop a GoTriple Data Science support service that will be offered on top of the GoTriple discovery platform. 

It will build a Data Science GoTriple pipeline that facilitates the use of GoTriple data (publications, projects, profiles, datasets) with the Data Science Universal Toolbox (JupyterLab, Neo4j) and improved GoTriple functionalities (GoTriple API, Chatbot, Pundit). It will enable users to publish research results (on GitHub, Zenodo, BinderHub) in a FAIR-compliant way by linking the results with datasets, as well as to use  software and run research pilots. Their results will be presented through the dedicated GoTriple’s Project page, as a manuscript/preprint, research data and code to form a FAIRified research object which connects publication, research data and research code.

Scientific Impact

The project is expected to enhance the EOSC service GoTriple by developing and providing a Data Science support service, which will allow the SSH community to build cross-disciplinary collaborations between the SSH Open Cluster and other EOSC Thematic Clusters thanks to shared background of data-driven methodologies. The results of the 2 data-driven research pilots from SSH researchers eager to obtain data science support to investigate relationships between scholarly communication and SDGs, will be published in a FAIR-compliant way (manuscript/preprint, code and data). The project’s FAIR-compliant outputs will serve as models for future studies, promoting best practices in Open Science. 

Results

  • Chatbot design and first implementation: FASCA designed and implemented the first production-ready version of the GoTriple chatbot, integrating Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Large Language Models to support conversational interaction with scholarly resources. The solution introduced a layered architecture with API-based backend services and a JavaScript interactive frontend integrated directly into the GoTriple platform. The chatbot enables researchers to analyse collections of documents, generate summaries, perform question-answering tasks, identify concepts and entities, and export structured outputs such as JSON. The service was integrated with GoTriple authentication and deployed in production as part of the GoTriple Data Services environment.
  • GoTriple Data Science Toolbox and JupyterHub deployment: The project successfully deployed a browser-based JupyterHub environment integrated with the GoTriple platform. Researchers can now access personalised notebook workspaces for computational analysis, graph exploration, and reproducible workflows without requiring local installation. The environment integrates Neo4j graph technologies, API access, notebook templates, and FAIR-oriented publication workflows connected to GitHub and Zenodo.
  • Development of the GoTripleHelper Python package: FASCA developed the gotriple_helper Python package to simplify access to the GoTriple APIs within notebooks and analytical workflows. The package supports retrieval and search across documents, projects, researchers, and users while handling pagination and metadata processing automatically. This significantly lowers the technical barrier for SSH researchers wishing to perform computational analysis using GoTriple data.
  • Pilot projects validating reproducible SSH workflows: Two external pilot projects were selected through an open call and supported by the FASCA Data Science team. The pilots demonstrated how GoTriple data and computational workflows can support multilingual SSH research, FAIR data practices, metadata analysis, environmental sustainability studies, and reproducible scholarly communication workflows.

Research outputs

Research outputs include scientific article drafts, datasets, and reusable Jupyter Notebook repositories.

Events

  • 20-21 May 2026 - Poster at OPERAS & SCIROS 2026 conference, to present the notebook/chatbot, communication to general audience and scholarly audience

Publications

  • Facilitating Scholarly Communication Analysis: the GoTriple Pipeline - DOI pending
  • A scholar-driven AI notebook for assisted and transparent research [Conference poster - OPERAS & SCIROS 2026 Conference]

Other material and resources

  • FASCA online presentation in GoTriple
  • Open call presentation page in GoTriple
  • Beginner’s guide to the Data Science Toolbox [ready, to be included inside the Jupyter Environment]
  • Use Case analysis for the Data Services, based on a user research [can supply additional material for dissemination and further research]
  • Examples of Jupyter Notebooks with scripts (ready-to-use notebooks as templates) [to facilitate use of the Toolbox]
  • Results of evaluation of the services done with users  [can supply additional material for dissemination and further research]
Keywords
research query support, data retrieval, metadata, semantic annotation, data analysis, data visualisation, GoTriple platform
Project start date:
Project duration:
18 months

Principal investigator

Sy Holsinger - PI FASCA project
Sy Holsinger
OPERAS
BIO

Sy is the OPERAS Chief Technology Officer (CTO), in charge of the technical vision and service strategy, coordinating the teams behind the solutions and aligning with the overall organisational strategy. Previous to OPERAS, Sy spent more than fifteen years in EU-funded projects related to the development and implementation of e-Infrastructures for research and innovation as well as commercial exploitation. He is a certified expert, trainer and auditor (ISO 19011) in both FitSM and ISO/IEC 27001 standards and volunteers as Co-chair of the ITEMO working group to evolve the FitSM standard.

QUOTE
"The vision for FASCA is that it will have transformed how Social Sciences and Humanities researchers conduct data-driven research. By integrating advanced data science tools into GoTriple, workflows are streamlined, discovery is enhanced and publishing is FAIR-compliant. Open Science is thus more accessible and impactful."
Resources