Rec. 13: Develop metrics to certify FAIR services
- Short Title: Rec. 13: Develop metrics 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, Discovery/ indexing/ search
- Keywords: metrics, assessmenet, certification
- Addressed Stakeholders: coordination fora, research community, data service providers
- Full Text: Certification schemes are needed to assess all components of the ecosystem as FAIR services. Existing frameworks like CoreTrustSeal (CTS) for repository certification should be used and adapted rather than initiating new schemes based solely on FAIR, which is articulated for data rather than services. Action 13.1: Where existing frameworks exist to certify data services, these should be reviewed and adjusted to align with FAIR. The language of the CTS requirements should be adapted to reference the FAIR data principles more explicitly (e.g. in sections on levels of curation, discoverability, accessibility, standards and reuse). Action 13.2: New certification schemes should be developed and refined by the community where needed to assess and certify core components in the FAIR data ecosystem such as identifier services, standards and vocabularies. Action 13.3: Formal registries of certified components are needed. These must be maintained primarily by the certifying organisation but should also be communicated in community discovery registries such as Re3data and FAIRsharing. Action 13.4: Steps need to be taken to ensure that the organisations overseeing certification schemes are independent, trusted, sustainable and scalable.