{"id":4379,"date":"2023-10-10T10:55:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T10:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-making-research-data-open-and-fair\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T10:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T04:37:09","slug":"everything-you-need-to-know-about-making-research-data-open-and-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-making-research-data-open-and-fair","title":{"rendered":"How to make research data open: Learn about the FAIR principles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unless if they have been hibernating since the 1990s, every researcher knows about the Open Access movement<\/a> and what a monumental shift it has represented in how scholars publish and read up on the latest research. Likewise, the Open Source movement has affected everybody\u2019s lives by enabling huge technological developments, particularly on the internet. Open Data is another closely linked concept that has attracted less attention. However, it also shares the potential to greatly transform how researchers interact with data and foster deeper collaborations in the future.<\/p>\n

If you are a researcher, you probably collect, analyze, and use all sorts of data to support your findings. But what happens to your data after you publish your paper? Do you keep hold of them? Do you share them with anyone who might be interested in or benefit from them? Do you make sure they are well-documented, organized, and accessible?<\/p>\n

If you answered no to any of these questions, you might want to consider reading up on open data and its best practices.<\/p>\n

What is Open Data?<\/h2>\n

Open Data is information released either under an open license or in the public domain that can be used by anybody. Open Data can come in any form, including as photographs, raw sensor data, databases, audio recordings, and nucleic acid sequences. Today, researchers, governmental organizations, and even citizen scientists<\/a> are contributing huge quantitites of open data to public repositories.<\/p>\n

Why should researchers open their data?<\/h2>\n

Increased visibility and impact of your research<\/h3>\n

By making your data open, you can increase the chances of other researchers finding and citing your work, which can boost your reputation and career prospects<\/a>. Other researchers may even approach you for future collaborations.<\/p>\n

Better credibility and reproducibility<\/h3>\n

If your data are open, you can enable other researchers to verify, replicate, or build upon your results, which can enhance the credibility and validity of your research. Even the simple act of providing your dataset publicly shows that you value transparency and have confidence in your findings.<\/p>\n

Contributing to the advancement of science and society<\/h3>\n

Open Data can facilitate collaboration, innovation, and knowledge creation both within your discipline and between other disciplines and sectors, which can lead to new discoveries and solutions for global challenges. It also has positive economic and social effects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What are the FAIR principles?<\/h2>\n

When sharing open data, the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles should be followed at all times. Making your research data open and FAIR is not only a good practice, but also a requirement for many journals and funding agencies nowadays. How these terms are implemented are explained in brief below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
F<\/strong>indable<\/td>\nA<\/strong>ccessible<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
    \n
  • Provide a globally unique and persistent identifier (e.g., DOI)<\/li>\n
  • Give useful metadata<\/li>\n
  • Metadata should refer to the identifier<\/li>\n
  • Register data in a searchable repository<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n
\n
    \n
  • Make data retrievable by their identifier using a standardized communications protocol<\/li>\n
  • Keep metadata accessible, even when data are no longer available<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
I<\/strong>nteroperable<\/td>\nR<\/strong>eusable<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
    \n
  • Data and their metadata should follow strictly defined language and vocabularies that facilitate interpretation and processing<\/li>\n
  • Data and metadata make qualified references to other data\/metadata (e.g, explain the nature of the link between A and B)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n
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