Index

FAIR principles

FAIR principles are requirements that ensure sustainable and re-usable research data. The acronym FAIR stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-Usable. A number of research funding providers (including the EU, the DFG and the SNF) believe the FAIR principles are an important requirement for sustainable research and therefore expect them to be complied with. Using persistent identifiers and detailed metadata is considered particularly important for the findability of data. Using standards for interfaces, metadata and data supports accessibility and interoperability of data. Extensive content-related metadata and documentation and clear rights of reuse make it easier to reuse data. Data do not have to be classed as open in order to meet FAIR principles, but their metadata ought to be freely accessible. By complying with these guidelines, “machine-actionability” is to be ensured. This means that a computer-aided system can find, access and reuse the digital objects with minimal human input.

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