The FAIR-principles

The FAIR principles and research data

Research funders such as the Swedish Research Council, Forte, the EU and Horizon Europe, etc. Indicates that the research data must meet The FAIR principles. Even initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) connect to the FAIR principles.

The FAIR principles for research data play an important role in the goals of open science. The Karolinska Institute's vision 2030 also states that "KI shall actively contribute to open access to research data”. FAIR is also included in KI's Policy for open access to research data (the policy is adopted bur not yet published).

Regardless of whether or not research data can be shared and published openly, it is important that they are handled and described correctly according to FAIR. You therefore need to take the FAIR principles into account when handling your research data and also in your project's data management plan. 

The term FAIR stands for research data should be

• Searchable: how can research data be found?
• Accessible: how to access research data?
• Compatible/Interoperable: do research data and metadata connect to accepted standards and formats?
• Reusable: can others reuse the data in the future?

The purpose of pursuing FAIR as a concept should primarily be to promote good data management and increased quality in scientific production and to improve the conditions for new research and innovation. 

The FAIR principles and scientific publications  

The National Library of Sweden has developed criteria to be able to assess the extent to which scientific publications that have been fully or partially produced with public funding meet the FAIR principles. The criteria must enable an assessment of whether scientific publications meet the national goal of being openly accessible immediately when they are published.

Based on the assessment criteria developed, the National Library must propose a method that should be able to show an overall picture of the extent to which scientific publications and research data meet the FAIR principles. 

The FAIR principles and research methods

To facilitate machine reuse of research methods, where possible and appropriate, research methods need to be provided with sufficient metadata to meet the FAIR principles. Support for the establishment of standards and common approaches therefore needs to be developed.

That research methods are made available in such a way and with sufficient metadata that the FAIR criteria are met. 

The FAIR principles and infrastructures

There is a particular need to use established standards and solutions to link together the different products of research, which may be scattered in several places. The use of persistent identifiers, usually e.g. a DOI, is crucial for long-term durability in connections between different types of research results, for example research data, publications and research methods.

It is through the development and use of established and robust standards and services that accessibility in accordance with the FAIR principles becomes possible. It also facilitates follow-up and evaluation of open science and thereby contributes to development.

At Karolinska Institutet, a major infrastructure project for making data available is currently underway where an institutional repository is under development: KI Data Repository.

The FAIR principles and open learning resources

It is important that open learning resources and their metadata are shared under open licences and as far as possible in line with the FAIR principles, in order to promote dissemination and reuse.