Research life cycle: 1.Planning: FAIR principles

Findable:
The first step in (re)use of data is to find it. Data and/or metadata must be easy to find for both humans and computers.

Prepare data for FAIRness:
Document your data. See this LibGuide.

Publish data as FAIR as possible. Findable by using:
   •  descriptive metadata rich enough to be able to find, quote
      and (re-)use the digital objects
   •  a 'persistent identifier' (e.g. DOI, ORCID, …)

Accessible:
It must be clear to the user (both humans and computers) how (meta)data can be accessed after they have been found.

Prepare data for FAIRness:
Determine the exact conditions under which data can be accessed (access conditions).

Publish data as FAIR as possible. Accessible by:
   •  an open available standardized universal communication
      protocol (e.g. tcp internet protocol)
   •  keeping metadata permanently accessible, even if the
      associated data are no longer available
 

Interoperable:
Data and/or metadata should usually be integrated or combined with other (meta)data. Therefore the (meta)data should be interchangeable with various applications or workflows for analysis, storage and processing.

Prepare data for FAIRness:
Use future-proof, open file formats when storing your data. See this LibGuide.

Publish data as FAIR as possible. Interoperable by use of:
   •  formal, widely applicable (programming) languages, such
      as XML
   •  consistent allocation of metadata

Reusable = the ultimate goal:
Optimizing the (re-)use of data. Making data and/or metadata suitable for (re-)use in future research.

Prepare data for FAIRness:
Document your data. Also save the software code used to edit and analyze the data. See this LibGuide.

Publish data as FAIR as possible. Reusable by:
   •  licenses (e.g. Creative Common licenses); see this
      LibGuide
   •  adding metadata that comprehensively describe the context
      in which the data was generated