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Introduction to PSDI Resources

PSDI provides numerous resources to help physical scientists with their research. This topic provides a list of the different kinds of resources provided by PSDI and links to where you can find further information about them or guidance materials to help you use them. See the following sections for more details about our resources.

If you want to view a full list of all our resources, see All Resources in the What we Provide page.

Resource themes are a set of resources that are related by a particular Physical Sciences research theme, capability, or contributing partner. Grouping the resources together in this way makes it easier to find resources that are related to each other. You can view the full list of resource themes and descriptions of each of them in the Browse by Resource Theme in the What we Provide page.

PSDI provides access to over 20 different databases and repositories of physical sciences data. You can perform a search of these data sources using the PSDI Cross Data Search Service.

To help you use the PSDI Cross Data Search Service, refer to the following guidance resources:

You can find out which data sources are included in the PSDI Data Search using our What we Provide page, see Data Sources for PSDI Cross Data Search and Optimade Providers. Following the links for individual resources enable you to access the data sources directly where an interface is available to do so.

There are also a number of data sources available in PSDI that are not currently available to search through the PSDI Data Search Service:

You can access details of all the data sources provided by PSDI and our partners from Data Sources.

PSDI Services​

PSDI provides a number of web-based software services that enable you to access, transform, and process your data, or to access guidance and training. In addition to the PSDI Cross Data Search described above and this Knowledge Base, services provided by PSDI and our partners include the services discussed in the following sections. To view a full list of the services provided by PSDI, see Services in the What We Provide page.

PSDI Data Conversion service​

PSDI's Data Conversion Service is our online service enabling users to seamlessly convert between different file formats and view information about the quality of the proposed conversion. Users can explore possible conversions, identify compatible formats for their data, and access details about the available converters that have been tested and ranked using comprehensive quality measures.

You can access the PSDI Data Conversion Service directly using this link. To view further information about the service, including links to documentation, see the entry in the PSDI Data Conversion Service in the What We Provide page.

PSDI Data Conversion is also available to run on your own hardware: as a container image, a command line application, and a python library. For more information about the different options available and which may be the best for your research, see PSDI Data Conversion Service.

PSDI Data Revival Service​

Data Revival is an AI-driven service that can seamlessly convert your handwritten lab book pages into machine-readable data, unlocking the potential of your chemistry data. Operating with a high degree of accuracy, Data Revival creates relational links across your chemical data and enables users to run semantic searches across potentially millions of data points, including complex chemical structures. See PSDI Data Revival Service, to find out more and to experience Data Revival's capabilities firsthand.

PSDI Interactive Learning (Moodle)​

PSDI provides a variety of self-paced learning models using the Moodle platform. To read more about the individual courses, see PSDI Interactive Learning (Moodle). Learn more about all the training opportunities PSDI provides on the Training section of this Knowledge Base.

LabTrove ELN Demonstrator​

LabTrove is a lightweight, blog-based Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN) that can be run through a browser. LabTrove provides facilities for users to record their experiments through both manual creation of records and the automatic capture of data from scientific instruments. LabTrove enables users to define their own semantics for their projects to facilitate linking together processes, data, and analysis from experiments. Templates can be created to standardise the format of information and data captured across a team or repeated experiments. The LabTrove ELN Demonstrator enables users to try it out and explore its features before deciding whether to download and implement the full version for themselves.

When you want to download and use LabTrove on your own infrastructure, you can use the LabTrove Container Image. To learn more about using LabTrove, see the LabTrove documentation.

Coming soon!

The online LabTrove ELN Demonstrator and container image are not yet available.

Catalysis Data Infrastructure (CDI) Thematic Portal and Bibliographic Data Web Service​

A Thematic Portal provides a summary report on publications and research impact within a specific scientific theme, based on a selected grant or institution. It presents information on publications, authors, institutions, top researchers, countries, and themes, tracking changes over time to highlight key research trends. The Catalysis Data Infrastructure (CDI) serves as an example, showcasing how thematic portals can summarise catalysis research data and demonstrate the potential of these tools. The Catalysis Data Infrastructure (CDI) Bibliographic Data Web Service provides a way to access publication data from Catalysis Data Infrastructure portal programmatically.

See the Catalysis Data Infrastructure (CDI) Portal Resource Theme to access these services and read more.

MagresView provides an online interface for CCP-NC. This visualisation tool enables crystal structure and NMR tensor visualisation from .magres files. SSNMR parameters like magnetic shielding and electric field gradient can be displayed as scaled ellipsoids super-imposed on the crystal structure for visualisation. The Database Search service can be used to search the MAGRES database by DOI, Magnetic shielding, Electric Field Gradient Vzz, Chemical name, Form, Unit cell formula, Molecular formula, MRD reference number, External database reference and/or License.

See the Collaborative Computational Project for NMR Crystallography (CCP-NC) Resource Theme to access these services and read more.

Materials Galaxy​

Galaxy is an open-source scientific workflow system designed to make research more accessible, reproducible and transparent. Galaxy manages the software tools and data associated with post-processing of large scale experimental and simulation data performed at national facilities. Designed for FAIR data analysis, Galaxy enables users to run code in interactive environments, share and publish results, workflows, and visualisations, and ensure reproducibility by capturing and packaging the data, metadata, and provenance models essential for replicating and understanding their analyses. Materials Galaxy provides access to tools for tackling computational challenges in muon spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Use cases are provided for muon science and catalysis experiments, with plans to expand to other large-scale experiments.

To find out more about the resources available through PSDI, see the Galaxy Workflow Management System Resource Theme.

ELN Finder​

ELNFinder, a resource actively supported by PSDI, assists researchers and staff from research institutions to select the most suitable Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) software for their needs. Users can easily filter the extensive list of ELNs by key criteria such as import/export capabilities, search functionality, delivery model, data storage, and pricing options.

PSDI Tools​

In the context of PSDI, tools are software that can be downloaded from PSDI and run on your own computing infrastructure. Many of the key PSDI services are also available as tools that you can run on your own hardware, meaning that you do not need to upload your data to PSDI or be constrained by any file size restrictions. It also means that some of the tools provided by PSDI can be integrated into your own applications or pipelines. To view the full list of PSDI tools, see Tools in What We Provide.

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