What is FAIR? Copy

Henryk Hodam

In 2014, a group of researchers as well as employees of libraries, archives, publishers and funders established principles for the handling of research data in a workshop and published them on FORCE11 for reviews and comments. The so-called FAIR principles were born. They comprise four goals: the findability, accessibility, interoperability and re-usability of data. With the achievement of these goals, the sustainable re-usability of research data is meant to be guaranteed. FAIR is not binary: FAIR is a spectrum!

The OpenAIRE definition of Metadata: Metadata is data providing information about data that makes findable, trackable and (re)usable. It can include information such as contact information, geographic locations, details about units of measure, abbreviations or codes used in the dataset, instrument and protocol information, survey tool details, provenance and version information and much more. In earth observation satellite data that could be the spatial and temporal extent of the data, the sensor, the bands and their wavelenghts, etc. Section 2.1 Data Discovery and 2.2 Data Properties deal with EO metadata in particular.

Findable
- The first step in (re)using data is to find them. Metadata and data should be easy to find for both humans and computers. Machine-readable metadata are essential for automatic discovery of datasets and services, so this is an essential component of the FAIRification process.
  - F1. (Meta)data are assigned a globally unique and persistent identifier
  - F2. Data are described with rich metadata (defined by R1 below)
  - F3. Metadata clearly and explicitly include the identifier of the data they describe
  - F4. (Meta)data are registered or indexed in a searchable resource
- Persistent Identifier (PID): These are IDs that identify a data set, publication or software (any digital object) unambiguosly and persistently with a single link. It increases the findability of a resource drastically. A widely used identifier is the Digital Object Identifier (DOI).
Accessible
- Once the users find the required data, they need to know how they can be accessed, possibly including authentication and authorisation.
  - A1. (Meta)data are retrievable by their identifier using a standardised communications protocol
  - A1.1 The protocol is open, free, and universally implementable
  - A1.2 The protocol allows for an authentication and authorisation procedure, where necessary
  - A2. Metadata are accessible, even when the data are no longer available
Interoperable
- The data usually need to be integrated with other data. In addition, the data need to interoperate with applications or workflows for analysis, storage, and processing.
  - I1. (Meta)data use a formal, accessible, shared, and broadly applicable language for knowledge representation.
  - I2. (Meta)data use standards, formats and vocabularies that follow FAIR principles and allow it to be exchanged and combined across computer systems
  - I3. (Meta)data include qualified references to other (meta)data
Reusable
- The ultimate goal of FAIR is to optimise the reuse of data. To achieve this, metadata and data should be well-described so that they can be replicated and/or combined in different settings
  - R1. (Meta)data are richly described with a plurality of accurate and relevant attributes
  - R1.1. (Meta)data are released with a clear and accessible data usage license
  - R1.2. (Meta)data are associated with detailed provenance
  - R1.3. (Meta)data meet domain-relevant community standards
- Licenses: To make your data reusable the use of appropiate licenses is key. Here is a good starting point to learn about the widely used creative commons licenses.

YouTube — Knowledge clip: FAIR data principles

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