Towards dimensions and granularity in a unified workflow and data provenance framework

Abstract

Provenance information are essential for the traceability of scientific studies or experiments and thus crucial for ensuring the credibility and reproducibility of research findings. This paper discusses a comprehensive provenance framework combining the two types 1. workflow provenance, and 2. data provenance as well as their dimensions and granularity, which enables the answering of W7+1 provenance questions. We demonstrate the applicability by employing a biomedical research use case, that can be easily transferred into other scientific fields. An integration of these concepts into a unified framework enables credibility and reproducibility of the research findings.