Rec. 9: Develop assessment frameworks to certify FAIR services
- Short Title: Rec. 9: Develop assessment frameworks to certify FAIR services
- Source Documnent: Turning FAIR into reality: Final report and action plan from the European Commission expert group on FAIR data
- Source Document Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.2777/1524
- Publishing Organisation: European Commision
- Date of Publication: 2018-11-26
- Topic: Certification/ evaluation, Sustainability/ funding/ business-model
- Keywords: metrics, assessmenet, certification
- Addressed Stakeholders: research funders, coordination fora, standards bodies, data service providers
- Full Text: Data services must be encouraged and supported to obtain certification, as frameworks to assess FAIR services emerge. Existing community-endorsed methods to assess data services, in particular CoreTrustSeal (CTS) for trusted digital repositories, should be used as a starting point to develop assessment frameworks for FAIR services. Repositories that steward data for a substantial period of time should be encouraged and supported to achieve CTS certification. Action 9.1: A programme of activity is required to incentivise and assist existing domain repositories, institutional services and other valued community resources to achieve certification, in particular through CTS. Action 9.2: A transition period is needed to allow existing repositories without certifications to go through the steps needed to achieve trustworthy digital repository status. Concerted support is necessary to assist existing repositories in achieving certification. Repositories may need to adapt their services to enable and facilitate machine processing and to expose their holdings via standardised protocols. Action 9.3: As certification frameworks emerge for components of the FAIR data ecosystem other than repositories, similar support programmes should be put in place to incentivise accreditation and ensure data service providers can meet the required service standards. Action 9.4: Mechanisms need to be developed to ensure that the FAIR data ecosystem as a whole is fit for purpose, not just assessed on a per service basis.