Contextualized, trustworthy, and collective scientific decision workflows

Miri, Pouriya (author), Stankovski, Vlado (author), Lavbič, Dejan (author), Potočar, Mitja (author), Kochovski, Petar (author)

Science gateways often capture workflow execution but not the rationale behind human decisions such as dataset selection, algorithm choice, parameterization, and result interpretation, which limits reproducibility. We propose a framework that captures and shares scientific decisions as verifiable and reusable knowledge assets. We formalize decision workflows as a Markov Decision Process (MDP), in which experimental contexts are defined as states, user choices as actions, and multi-criteria constraints as reward functions. To ensure tamper-evident provenance and secure attribution, decision records use JSON-LD linked to Decentralized Identifiers as Verifiable Credentials (VCs). The architecture consists of three layers: a User layer for interaction and control, a Service layer for ranking and credential management, and a Data layer for semantic storage and blockchain-based verification. We implemented a prototype on the Ethereum Sepolia testnet to demonstrate end-to-end decision capture, credential issuance, selective disclosure, and blockchain-based verification. In a user study, all finalized decisions were captured as structured records, and 45 of 51 were issued as user-controlled VCs. The MDP-based ranking achieved a Top-1 agreement of 92.2% with user selections, substantially outperforming an approximate random baseline. Interaction patterns suggest two modes: guided exploration for non-expert users and selective deviation from ranked recommendations by expert users. These results indicate that decision provenance can complement traditional workflow provenance by preserving the reasoning behind scientific choices. By combining decentralized identity, semantic interoperability, and probabilistic decision modeling, the framework supports transparent, user-controlled, and collaborative experimentation and provides a basis for collective reuse of decision knowledge.

• Language: English
• Keywords: scientific experimentation, decision semantics, decentralized knowledge sharing, Markov decision process
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FRI - Faculty of Computer and Information Science
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 20 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 7, iss. 6, article no. 649
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-185413
• UDC: 004.8
• ISSN on article: 2661-8907
• DOI: 10.1007/s42979-026-05224-w
• COBISS.SI-ID: 285763843
• Publication date in RUL: 04.08.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: SN computer science
• Shortened title: SN comput. sci.
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 2661-8907
• COBISS.SI-ID: 68966147

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: znanstveno eksperimentiranje, semantika odločanja, decentralizirana izmenjava znanja, markovski proces odločanja

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Project number: 101093164
• Name: EXPeriment driven and user eXPerience oriented analytics for eXtremely Precise outcomes and decisions
• Acronym: ExtremeXP

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0426-2022
• Name: Digitalna preobrazba za pametno javno upravljanje