System and method for electronic submission, procurement, and access to highly varied material property data

A method of managing material property data comprising the steps of:

• a) storing material property data in a repository stored in a computer memory comprising a plurality of materials property datasets, each dataset:
• i) being created by a data provider;
• ii) having at least one owner;
• iii) being associated with a sample of a material and a test on the sample of the material;
• and
• wherein the repository comprises:
• a) a metadata database in the form of instances with associated metadata giving information about the instances, the metadata comprising at least one data element selected from a list comprising name, description, and identifying information, the metadata database comprising:
• 1) metadata on the material;
• 2) metadata on the sample;
• 3) metadata on the test;
• 4) metadata on data value elements in a test result database further comprising at least one data element selected from a list comprising data type, units, acceptable values or ranges, and default value;
• and
• 5) metadata on the metadata, comprising at least one data element describing the metadata on the material, sample, test and data value elements in the metadata database;
• b) the test result database comprising a plurality of instances having associated metadata in the metadata database giving information about the instance, the instances comprising information about at least one result derived from the test on the sample of the material, each instance comprising:
• 1) at least one data element representing information about at least one of the material, the sample or the test;
• and
• 2) at least one data value element representing a test result, selected from a list comprising a single data point, an equation, a graph, a data array, and a picture;
• and
• c) a customer database, comprising information about users of the repository, the users about whom information is stored in the customer database comprise owners, users and providers of information in the repository
• wherein the metadata in the metadata database define the instances in the metadata database and the instances of test result information in the test result database, and
• wherein an instance from the test result database, combined with associated metadata from the metadata database describes the test result derived from the test on the sample of the material;
• b) providing at least one data owner with access to at least one dataset in the repository;
• c) providing at least one data user with access to at least one dataset in the repository;
• and
• d) displaying information from at least one dataset stored in step (a) and accessed by the user in step (c) on a display.