What is FAIR?
Properly curated research data should abide by the four core FAIR guiding principles:
Findable, Accessible, Inter-operable, and Reusable
Source: https://kidsfirstdrc.org/about/drc_impact/
The FAIR principles do not prescribe any particular technology, standard, or specification, but rather act as a guide to researchers to aid them in evaluating whether their current data curation practices are sufficent to render their data Findable, Accessible, Inter-operable, and Reusable, or FAIR.
Through practical tutorials and resources, this guide will assist any researcher in performing data curation to enrich a research data project consistently with the FAIR principles. Before doing so, it is important to have a broader understanding of the FAIR guiding principles, and their role in data curation.
For data (and metadata) to be findable it must:
Data and metadata must have a globally unique and eternally persistent identifier.
Data is described with rich metadata.
Metadata must clearly and explicitly include the identifier of the data they describe.
Data and corresponding metadata must be registered or indexed in a searchable resource.
Adapted from: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/ in accordance with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
For data (and metadata) to be accessible it must:
Data and metadata are retrievable by their identifier using a standardized communications protocol.
The protocol used is open, free, and universally implementable.
The protocol should allow for an authentication and authorization procedure, where necessary.
Metadata are accessible, even when the data are no longer available.
Adapted from: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/ in accordance with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
For data (and metadata) to be inter-operable it must:
Data and metadata use a formal, accessible, shared, and broadly applicable language for knowledge representation.
Data and metadata use vocabularies that follow FAIR principles.
Data and metadata include qualified references to other data and metadata.
Adapted from: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/ in accordance with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
For data (and metadata) to be inter-operable it must:
Data and metadata should be richly described with a plurality of accurate and relevant attributes to include:
Data and metadata are released with a clear and accessible data usage license.
Data and metadata are associated with detailed provenance.
Data and metadata must meet domain-relevant community standards.
Adapted from: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/ in accordance with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
