pISA-tree - a data management framework for life science research projects using a standardised directory tree

We have developed pISA-tree, a straightforward and flexible data management solution for organisation of life science project-associated research data and metadata. It enables on-the-fly creation of enriched directory tree structure (project/Investigation/Study/Assay) via a series of sequential batch files in a standardised manner based on the ISA metadata framework. The system supports reproducible research and is in accordance with the Open Science initiative and FAIR principles. Compared with similar frameworks, it does not require any systems administration and maintenance as it can be run on a personal computer or network drive. It is complemented with two R packages, pisar and seekr, where the former facilitates integration of the pISA-tree datasets into bioinformatic pipelines and the latter enables synchronisation with the FAIRDOMHub public repository using the SEEK API. Source code and detailed documentation of pISA-tree and its supporting R packages are available from https://github.com/NIB-SI/pISA-tree.