Empirical research in computer science (CS) often employs heterogeneous, domain-specific schemas, which limits interoperability and reuse of research knowledge. To align with the FAIR principles, namely Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable, there is a need for a unified representation of research concepts and relationships. We propose a joint schema that captures core concepts of empirical research practice and their relationships. This schema serves as a foundation for knowledge graph population based on a bottom-up unification of diverse schemas from the research domains Software Architecture and Design, Requirements Engineering, and Business Informatics. The proposed schema was evaluated through a survey conducted within the NFDIxCS consortium, collecting feedback from 18 respondents. The results indicate that the schema is perceived as relevant and useful for harmonizing research metadata across domains. Our findings suggest that the joint schema provides a promising step toward FAIR-compliant infrastructures and cross-domain knowledge integration in CS. In future work, we aim extending the schema for additional CS disciplines and further validate it.
Almohaishi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.