FAIR Guiding Principles


What do we mean by 'FAIR'?

The FAIR Guiding Principles describe things to consider when making scholarly data available. These are broken down into four interrelated topics: Data and metadata should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

Findability and Accessibility relate to identifiers such as a DOI, and appropriate licencing terms. Interoperability and Reusability recommend that data are stored in a manner that is readable by all, and that information about the data (the metadata) is described in enough detail to be understood by both humans and machines.