[Feature Request] Add Assay Description to isa.xlsx

[andreaschrader]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
When importing or exporting individual datasets from an ARC, an assay description is desirable and helps for interoperability.

Describe the solution you'd like
Add "Study Assay Description" to the isa.assay.xlsx file and update to study and investigation.

[HLWeil]

This is also stemming from the fact that Assays contain no description field in neither ISA-Tab nor ISA-Json. Will move this issue to specification.

[HLWeil]

I'd say we just add identifier, description, and title in the assay to to align it with investigation and study? This has been an issue of discussion long enough and compared to some other adjustments we made, this is a very minor abbreviation from the reference ISA-Tab.

• Update in isa-xlsx specification
• Should be straight-forward to implement in ARCtrl/Swate
• Should be straight-forward to put as comments in isa-json
• Should come naturally in ARC RO-Crate

What do you say?
@Freymaurer @muehlhaus @Brilator

[Freymaurer]

I am all for this change, are these extra fields lost on export to ISA or do we plan anything to keep them?

[Brilator]

Would it replace or just add to the current assay metadata?

[HLWeil]

I am all for this change, are these extra fields lost on export to ISA or do we plan anything to keep them?

These fields do not contain any hierarchical structure but are just flat strings. So, as stated, it will be very straight-forward to include them in isa-json as comments. By this, you don't lose the information when writing and reading again.

[HLWeil]

Would it replace or just add to the current assay metadata?

It would just add.