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Data Management: FAIR Principles for Data Management

This guide describes library services and resources to support data management at UNO.

The FAIR Guiding Principles represent a concise and measurable set of guidelines designed to improve the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability of digital research objects. Developed by a diverse group of stakeholders from academia, industry, funding agencies, and publishers, these principles aim to enhance the infrastructure supporting scholarly data management and stewardship.

In today's data-intensive research environment, there is an urgent need to improve how scholarly data is managed and shared. Good data management is not an end in itself but a fundamental component leading to knowledge discovery, innovation, and data integration. The FAIR Principles provide guidelines for those wishing to enhance the reusability of their data holdings.

Unlike initiatives that focus primarily on human scholars, the FAIR Principles emphasize the ability of machines to automatically find and use data, in addition to supporting its reuse by individuals. This machine-actionability is becoming increasingly important as the scale of data and the complexity of research questions continue to grow.

Findable Data and metadata should be easy to find for both humans and computers
Accessible Once found, data should be retrievable through standardized protocols
Interoperable Data should be able to be integrated with other data and work with applications for analysis
Reusable Data should be well-described so it can be replicated and/or combined in different settings

To be Findable:

  • F1. (Meta)data are assigned a globally unique and persistent identifier
  • F2. Data are described with rich metadata (defined by R1 below)
  • F3. Metadata clearly and explicitly include the identifier of the data it describes
  • F4. (Meta)data are registered or indexed in a searchable resource

To be Accessible:

  • A1. (Meta)data are retrievable by their identifier using a standardized communications protocol
    • A1.1 The protocol is open, free, and universally implementable
    • A1.2 The protocol allows for an authentication and authorization procedure, where necessary
  • A2. Metadata are accessible, even when the data are no longer available

To be Interoperable:

  • I1. (Meta)data use a formal, accessible, shared, and broadly applicable language for knowledge representation
  • I2. (Meta)data use vocabularies that follow FAIR principles
  • I3. (Meta)data include qualified references to other (meta)data

To be Reusable:

  • R1. Meta(data) are richly described with a plurality of accurate and relevant attributes
    • R1.1. (Meta)data are released with a clear and accessible data usage license
    • R1.2. (Meta)data are associated with detailed provenance
    • R1.3. (Meta)data meet domain-relevant community standards

[adapted from CMU Libraries]