Nexus-Experiment: an XML schema for describing data collected from electron microscopes

We share an XML Schema for describing data collected from a laboratory experiment in an organized way that attempts to communicate scientific intent and the phased process of data creation. It was developed as part of laboratory information management system (LIMS) prototyping effort by a collaboration at NIST between the NEXUS Microscopy facility (managed within the Materials Science and Engineering Division) and the Material Measurement Lab's Office of Data and Informatics. When a facility user reserves and then operates one of the facility microscopes, the LIMS system automatically gathers metadata from the reservation calendar, the files created by the instrument, and potentially other sources and organizes them into an XML document describing what was done. The system uses the NIST Configurable Data Curation System (CDCS) to display the document as a scientist-oriented summary of the microscopy experiment. The schema is fairly general and free of specifics tied to microscopy (apart perhaps from a reference to samples). This schema is expected to be a useful prototype not only across LIMS efforts within NIST but possibly more broadly across the global microscopy research community. The XML schema is fully documented internally, including definitions of all elements and types.