Basics

What is FAIR Data?

The FAIR principles declare that research data should be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (Wilkinson, 2016). The FAIR-principles establish the conditions for cross-disciplinary and cross-border reuse of data.

This does not mean that all data are necessarily available for unrestricted reuse (‘open data’). Following the FAIR principles may also imply that data are only available under certain conditions and for certain groups of users.

The implementation of the FAIR-principles has become a pillar in sustainable research data management. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has incorporated the FAIR principles into good research practice guidelines:

“In the interest of transparency and to enable research to be referred to and reused by others, whenever possible researchers make the research data and principal materials on which a publication is based available in recognised archives and repositories in accordance with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).”

DFG (2019): Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice. Code of Conduct, p. 17.

This video by CESSDA Training provides an overview of the FAIR principles and covers the following topics:

1. How can we make data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR)?
2. How is the FAIRness of research data evaluated?
3. Which tools are available to make data FAIR?