From e9047954f005c9b37003857b15df7c557a5c4cde Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Tobias Bengfort <bengfort@mpib-berlin.mpg.de>
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 11:36:46 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] add section that explains what castellum actually is

adapted from https://git.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/castellum/castellum-meta/blob/master/README.md
---
 source/concepts/what.rst | 54 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 source/index.rst         |  6 +++++
 2 files changed, 60 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 source/concepts/what.rst

diff --git a/source/concepts/what.rst b/source/concepts/what.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7661245
--- /dev/null
+++ b/source/concepts/what.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+What is this?
+=============
+
+Castellum is a subject database system developed at the Max Planck Society.
+
+Goals
+-----
+
+-   GDPR compliant data protection and security
+-   Flexibility so it can be used in different institutes
+
+Classification
+--------------
+
+You can think of many kinds of scientific databases that handle personal
+information:
+
+study database
+    contains all data that is collected during a study
+
+    only the researchers that are involved with the study have access to
+    the data
+
+study archive
+    contains data from past studies that is relevant for scientific
+    reasons, e.g. reproducibility
+
+research archive
+    contains data that has been collected during one study, but may be
+    reused in another one
+
+    reusing data saves time for both the researcher and the test subject
+
+    examples include image archives and biobanks
+
+recruting database
+    contains some data about (potential) test subjects that allows you can
+    find out which ones you should contact for your next study
+
+contact database
+    a central list of contact information shared by all other databases
+
+    by having this in a central place, contact information can be updated
+    for all studies at the same time.
+
+    by having this in a central place, the other databases can work with
+    pseudonyms instead.
+
+pseudonym service
+    used to store relations between the different datasets
+
+Of these, castellum implements a recruting database, a contact database, and a
+pseudonym service. All data that is actually related to studies must be
+stored separately.
diff --git a/source/index.rst b/source/index.rst
index dc198cb..2a771d8 100644
--- a/source/index.rst
+++ b/source/index.rst
@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@
 Welcome to castellum-docs's documentation!
 ==========================================
 
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 2
+   :caption: Concepts
+
+   concepts/what.rst
+
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 2
    :caption: Workflows
-- 
GitLab