A Study on a Research Process Ontology Based on the Concept of ‘Activity’

Next-generation sequencing techniques made possible enormous steps in the sequencing of genomic material. These advancements were not supported by similar progress in developing of tools for extracting knowledge from these data: interfaces used to analyze genomic data require high Computer Science expertise, being not suitable for most researchers with a biological or clinical background. As a consequence, these tools impose cognitive barriers to bioinformatics research. An ontology of the research process has to be used as a reference during the development of new tools to overcome these barriers. In this work, we run a user study to elicit a hierarchical task tree of the tertiary bioinformatics research process. Then, we show how such a model can be exploited to design interfaces that are not only focused on the data treated but keep in consideration both the research workflow and the researchers’ requirements. Our work has profound implications on designing new, accessible bioinformatics tools that can enhance genomic research.

Materialist process ontologies, often subsumed under the term new materialism, such as the Deleuzian materialism of Rosi Braidotti, the agential realism of Karen Barad or the posthumanism of Donna Haraway, are becoming increasingly recognized in qualitative research. In this article I argue and illustrate that these theories allow for a reconfiguration of analytical research tools without using the representationalist epistemological framework these tools are often embedded in. Karen Barad’s concept of ‘exteriority within’ is of particular help for this task. I illustrate the research practices of two research projects, which included multiple methods of data collections (interviews, observations, re-enactments), a process of analysis I call referencing and a writing technique I call rebuilding worlds.