A Design Framework and Exemplar Metrics for FAIRness

Abstract

The FAIR Principles provide guidelines for the publication of digital resources such as datasets, code, workflows, and research objects, in a manner that makes them Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). The Principles have rapidly been adopted by publishers, funders, and pan-disciplinary infrastructure programmes and societies. The Principles are aspirational, in that they do not strictly define how to achieve a state of "FAIRness", but rather they describe a continuum of features, attributes, and behaviors that will move a digital resource closer to that goal. This ambiguity has led to a wide range of interpretations of FAIRness, with some resources even claiming to already "be FAIR"! The increasing number of such statements, the emergence of subjective and self-assessments of FAIRness2,3, and the need of data and service providers, journals, funding agencies, and regulatory bodies to qualitatively or quantitatively evaluate such claims, led us to self-assemble and establish a FAIR Metrics group to pursue the goal of defining ways to measure FAIRness.