methodsraw

Methodsraw is a term in data management describing raw records of methodological details captured during experiments or computational workflows. It comprises unprocessed notes, logs, and parameter dumps that accompany a project before curation and standardization. The data is heterogeneous, mixing structured fields with free-text observations, timestamps, and provenance.

Common elements include method_id, technique, subtechniques, parameter_name, parameter_value, units, timestamp, operator, experiment_id, and notes. It may be organized per experiment, run, or workflow step, and stored as JSON, CSV, log files, or XML. Because much of it is free-text, methodsraw can be noisy and incomplete.

Purpose: to retain a complete trace of method execution for reproducibility, auditing, and future comparison. It serves as input to data-curation pipelines that produce cleaned, standardized methods records.

Processing and curation typically parse and normalize field names, map parameters to vocabularies, harmonize units, resolve duplicates, and link entries to datasets or instruments. Validation checks flag missing values or timestamp inconsistencies.

Use cases include laboratory information management, computational experiments, and method logging in software pipelines. Challenges include terminology variability, free-text notes, incomplete records, and versioning.

See also: metadata, provenance, reproducibility, workflow management. The term methodsraw is not universally standardized and may vary across organizations.