The lifecycle of research data does not end with its design, production, analysis, and the publication of results; data are resources to be shared, made accessible, and effectively reusable to enable reproducibility.
The European Community has published Guidelines that implement the so-called FAIR principles with the aim of standardizing data management methods and opening up data access. With these principles, the use of electronic media and standard formats becomes fundamental, as do procedures that minimize human intervention, given the enormous quantity and complexity of the data managed, as well as the speed at which they are produced. The FAIR principles refer to three types of entities: data (or any digital object), metadata (information about that digital object), and research infrastructures.
The acronym FAIR comes from the combination of four terms:
- Findable: Data, metadata, and research infrastructures must be discoverable and readable by both people and machines (the use of metadata described in a standard language is fundamental for the automatic search of datasets and services).
- Accessible: Data, metadata, and research infrastructures must be accessible in such a way that, once the requested data is found, the user can access it, possibly after authentication and authorization.
- Interoperable: Data and metadata must be appropriately prepared, with attention to terminology and format, to be easily integrated with other data and immediately usable through applications or workflows for analysis, storage, and processing.
- Reusable: Data and metadata must be reusable, and to this end, they must be equipped with a license that allows for their free use and be clearly described, so that they can be reused and/or combined in different contexts.
To learn more:
How to make your data FAIR. Basic information with links to resources. OpenAIRE.