A context-based framework for improving decision making in scientific workflow

Abstract

Scientific workflow (SWF) is considered as a way to automate the decision making with a compilation of known sequences of actions for routine procedure. Current scientific workflow systems lack abilities, in the one hand, in capturing the “context” of the case of the scientific workflow, and, in the other hand, in delivering the real-time assistance to help the user make effective decisions. We propose a context-based framework to improve decision making in SWF. This framework allows making context explicit and realizing the contextualization of the workflows stored in the SWF repository. We use Contextual Graphs (CxGs) as formalism for representing uniformly all the ingredients of a decision-making process in a SWF, so that scientists can customize information and formalize their research and strategies. An example drawn from an application in virtual screening is given to illustrate the potentiality of our context-based framework. Finally, we conclude that a context-based formalism such as CxGs is the key element to enhance decision-making support in SWF systems.