The Four Basics of FAIR:
| 'Findable' | i.e. discoverable with metadata, identifiable and locatable by means of a standard identification mechanism |
| 'Accessible' | i.e. always available and obtainable; even if the data is restricted, the metadata is open |
| 'Interoperable' | i.e. both syntactically parseable and semantically understandable, allowing data exchange and reuse between researchers, institutions, organisations or countries; and |
| 'Reusable' | i.e. sufficiently described and shared with the least restrictive licences, allowing the widest reuse possible and the least cumbersome integration with other data sources. |
Things to remember
- FAIR is a set of principles; not a standard.
- Does following the FAIR principles mean that your data has to be shared openly with everyone? NO.
- Data can be FAIR but not open. For example, data could meet the FAIR principles, but be private or only shared under certain restrictions.
- Open data may not be FAIR. For example, publically available data may lack sufficient documentation to meet the FAIR principles, such as licensing for clear reuse.
- If you are in receipt of H2020 funding the EC requires a Data Management Plan (DMP) as part of the H2020 data pilot. The FAIR principles can help you understand how to practically describe how to create, store, share, manage and preserve your data in your DMP.