Which steps are involved in making data FAIR? What do these steps mean and, importantly, how do you practically do these steps? The Metroline[1] provides guidance to help you reach your FAIR goals.
The Metroline, shown in the image below, gives an overview of steps used by a variety of publications and initiatives to reach their FAIR goals. By properly describing what these steps entail and adding practical how-tos, the steps can be used as a tool to help researchers and data stewards make data more FAIR and ready for onboarding in the National Catalogue.
As can be seen in the image, the Metroline contains many steps. Depending on your project and goals only a select number of steps will be relevant. Thus, each project will have its own metroline:
[Jolanda] In the subpages we will give a short description of the steps and we will build the “how to” and example sections. We will prioritise developing the content of certain steps based on ….. (see below).
To add content to the metroline, we will start by attempting to decrease the number of steps by, for example, merging steps. Given the large number of steps, we will prioritise steps based on their presence in scenarios, which are detailed, real-life examples of processes. For example, see this Radboudumc scenario about onboarding data, which involves several metroline steps. Using this approach we ensure focus is on steps that are relevant right now.
Furthermore, we are also developing FAIR services together with funders, to incorporate FAIR into projects from the start. [Jolanda] These services partly overlap with the metroline steps and will link to each other.
References & Further reading:
[1] Critical steps towards large-scale implementation of the FAIR data principles