Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank

Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank
Name	Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank
Established	2012
Type	Data repository
Discipline	X-ray imaging
Director	Unknown
Country	International

Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank is an international open repository for coherent X-ray imaging datasets, metadata, and reconstructed images. It supports researchers working with synchrotron radiation, free-electron lasers, and laboratory X-ray sources by providing archival deposition, standardized formats, and tools for reproducible analysis. The archive interfaces with major facilities, journals, and funding agencies to promote data sharing and methodological transparency.

Introduction

The repository catalogs experimental datasets from instruments at facilities such as European XFEL, Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Advanced Photon Source, DESY, and Diamond Light Source, and links to projects at institutions including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Riken, Max Planck Society, and Brookhaven National Laboratory. It facilitates deposition workflows used by researchers associated with University of Oxford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, and California Institute of Technology. The resource complements community efforts led by organizations like CODATA, Research Data Alliance, International Union of Crystallography, OpenAIRE, and ELIXIR.

History and Development

The archive emerged from collaborations among teams at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Diamond Light Source, DESY, and Max Planck Society following demonstrations at conferences such as SPIE Optics + Photonics, American Physical Society March Meeting, X-ray Microscopy Conference, and workshops organized by European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and National Institutes of Health. Early technical design drew on standards from International Organization for Standardization, data models from Digital Curation Centre, and repository practices used by Protein Data Bank, EMDataBank, Zenodo, and Figshare. Funding and pilot support came through grants from agencies including European Commission, U.S. National Science Foundation, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and Wellcome Trust.

Data Content and Formats

Datasets include raw diffraction patterns, coherent diffraction imaging series, ptychography scans, holography images, phase retrieval outputs, and tomographic reconstructions produced at facilities such as European XFEL, LCLS-II, Swiss Light Source, SOLEIL, and ALBA synchrotron. File formats supported mirror community conventions like HDF5, NeXus, and standardized TIFF variants used by groups at Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter and Paul Scherrer Institute. Metadata schemas align with recommendations from Dublin Core, DataCite, and community ontologies advanced by ELIXIR and RDA Imaging WG. Contributed datasets often cite analysis workflows implemented using software from DIALS, SHi Ne, Hawk, PyNX, CONVOLUTIONAL, Sherpa, Scipion, and repositories maintained at GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket.

Submission and Access Policies

Submission procedures reflect deposit workflows modeled after Protein Data Bank, GenBank, and Zenodo to ensure persistent identifiers and DOI assignment via DataCite. Contributors affiliated with European XFEL, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, DESY, Diamond Light Source, or university groups at Imperial College London, Princeton University, Harvard University, and University of Tokyo follow validation checks led by curators trained in standards from Research Data Alliance and CODATA. Access policies balance open access principles promoted by Plan S and embargo practices used by Nature Research and Science (journal), while complying with data governance frameworks from European Commission and U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Governance and Funding

Governance involves steering committees drawing members from European XFEL, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, DESY, Diamond Light Source, Max Planck Society, Riken, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and academic centers at University of Oxford and MIT. Funding streams have included grants and institutional contributions from European Commission Horizon 2020, U.S. National Science Foundation, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, Wellcome Trust, and infrastructure investments by Helmholtz Association and National Research Foundation of Korea. Advisory roles have been provided by representatives from International Union of Crystallography, CODATA, Research Data Alliance, and publishers such as Elsevier, Springer Nature, and American Institute of Physics.

Research Applications and Impact

Researchers from groups at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Stanford University, Imperial College London, Riken, and Max Planck Institute use the repository to reproduce phase retrieval studies, benchmark reconstruction algorithms, and develop machine learning models leveraging datasets from LCLS-II, European XFEL, Advanced Photon Source, Diamond Light Source, and Swiss Light Source. The archive has enabled cross-validation of methods published in Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, Science Advances, Journal of Applied Crystallography, and IUCrJ, and supported collaborations with industry partners such as Nikon Corporation, Hitachi, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and ASML. Outcomes include improved reconstruction fidelity in studies related to nanomaterials, biomacromolecules, magnetic domains, and semiconductor devices.

Technical Infrastructure and Standards

The platform runs on infrastructure compatible with services at European Open Science Cloud, ESRF Data Centre, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Leiden University Data Repository, and cloud providers used by Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. It employs APIs and metadata registries interoperable with DataCite, ORCID, Crossref, and authentication via federated systems such as eduGAIN. Data integrity checks follow checksum practices endorsed by International Organization for Standardization and preservation policies informed by Digital Curation Centre and Open Archival Information System models.

Category:Scientific data repositories