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Short description
‘A FAIRification objective is the end goal that the owners of a resource [e.g. dataset, database, protocols, analysis workflow] are looking to achieve with the process of FAIRification. It needs to be based on the research question, the data available in the resource, the expertise of the FAIRification team, available FAIR solutions and the availability of budget and appropriate infrastructure.’ (EJP RD FAIRification Guidelines)
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a single aspect of FAIR, such as increasing Findability of a dataset by making it available in the Dutch National Health Data Catalogue;
multiple aspects of FAIR, such as use of terminologies and vocabularies to represent the data (Interoperability) combined with making the dataset available in the before mentioned National Catalogue (Findability).
Why is this step important
Based on the aforementioned models, setting clear FAIRification goals is essential for a number of reasons, some of which are described below.
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Importantly, clear FAIR objectives help identifying which steps of the FAIR Metroline are relevant to your FAIRification journey.
How to
Step 1
Get acquainted with the FAIR principles, for instance via the GO FAIR Foundation (GFF) website. These form the basis for defining FAIR objectives.
Step 2
When defining your FAIR objectives, check if any of the following applies.
What are the FAIR requirements set by the funder of your project or the journal you aim to publish in? FAIRsharing provides an overview of policies.
What are the FAIR requirements set by your institute? For instance, uploading your (meta)data to a certain repository or catalogue.
What are the FAIR requirements set by your project? These are usually written down in your project’s Data Management Plan (DMP). DMP tooling, such as Data Stewardship Wizard (DSW), help to make your study or project more FAIR.
Step 3
For onboarding metadata in the Dutch National Health Data Catalogue, the following FAIR objectives are relevant.
The (meta)data should be findable - Findable by humans and computers - in the Catalogue (Findability).
Information should be provided on how the data can be accessed. Note: accessible does not imply Open. Data should be “As open as possible, as closed as necessary” (Open Science in Horizon 2020).(Accessibility).
Provide your metadata via a FAIR Data Point to the Catalogue. For this the metadata must be mapped to the DCAT-AP based Catalogue’s core metadata schema (Interoperability).
The data should be provided with a machine-readable license and provenance information on how the data was formed (Reusability).
Step 4
You may have your own requirements to formulate FAIR objectives, for example:
I would like to add more metadata to improve the reusability of my dataset;
I’m setting up a new data collection and my data must be collected in a standardised, interoperable way;
I want to transform my existing data into an interoperable dataset;
I have standard, core data which needs to be collected and made FAIR in real time.
Step 5
Decide on the desired FAIR level for your project or study, using resources such as the RDA FAIR Data Maturity Model, FAIRplus Dataset Maturity (DSM) Model or GFF's FIP mini-questionnaire. Does a lightweight FAIR layer suffice, i.e. , improving from non-structured to structured metadata? Or should it be more extensive, i.e. , transforming a relational database to fully ontologised linked data?
See Metroline Step Pre-FAIR assessment for more information.
Step 6
Identify the resources (team of experts, time, tools, etc.) you need to complete your FAIRification process and whether they are available. For instance:
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See Metroline Step: Build the Team for more information on team requirements.
Step 7
Consider the impact of your FAIRification efforts. For instance:
Cost-benefit ratio. Does the end result outweigh the efforts you are putting in it?
Reuse of data. In what way do potential reusers of your data (e.g. researchers, other users of the data) benefit most from the results of your FAIRification efforts?
Stakeholder benefits. What other stakeholders (e.g. patients, general population, clinicians) would benefit from making your data more FAIR?
Research question. How does the driving research question impact your FAIRification objectives?
Step 8
Organise and describe the steps and resources needed for reaching your FAIRification objective(s). This can be a separate plan (see Metroline Step: Design Solution Plan - in development) or part of your DMP. Make sure to formulate your FAIR objectives as specific as possible and, and where possible, incorporate research questions. For example:
I require Interoperable data, because I need to connect two different datasets to answer question X;
I want to make my data more Findable for researchers in my field by publishing it in repository Z.
Expertise requirements for this step
Defining FAIRification objectives is typically a collaborative effort by a range of experts, as described in Metroline Step: Build the Team.
Domain expertsResearchers with domain knowledge. Provide context to the FAIRification efforts from the perspective of a domain.
Data FAIR data stewards. Help defining FAIR objectives to meet the project’s, funder’s, journal’s and/or institute’s requirements.
FAIR experts,such as metadata/semantics specialistsSemantic experts. Help specifying the metadata/modelling aspects of FAIR objectives.
ELSI experts. Help identifying the legal compliance and ethical aspects of your FAIR objectives.
Practical examples from the community
European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP RD)
Programme aiming to create an effective rare diseases research ecosystem.
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sustainable MLDi registry, requiring interoperability with future and existing (international) MLD databases;
reusable MLDi data, by creating a web-based semantic model to improve interoperability;
FAIR as team effort, requiring people with the right expertise.
Tools and resources on this page
Training
Relevant training will be added in the future if available.
Suggestions
Visit our How to contribute page for information on how to get in touch if you have any suggestions about this page.