
Ensuring that research data are managed according to the
FAIR data
guiding principles
has become one of, if not the most frequently required aspect in data
management.
DKRZ is committed to ensure the FAIRness of
research data through signing the COPDESS (Coalition on Publishing Data in the
Earth and Space Sciences) Commitment in June 2018. Specifically, the native
philosophy behind DKRZ's long-term archiving service LTA WDCC reflects the FAIR
data principles by design - and even goes beyond them by ensuring very long-term
(>10 years) preservation and therefore long-term reusability of archived data
(see below for details).
In the context of the discipline specific datasets
archived in LTA WDCC, we recap the FAIR data guiding principles as standing for
(meta)data being
- Findable
-
data and metadata are easy to find by both humans and machines and are
assigned globally resolvable identifiers
- Accessible
-
limitations on the use of data (licenses), and access mechanisms are made
explicit for both humans and machines
- Interoperable
-
data and metadata comply with community specific file formats and (meta)data
standards such that they can readily combined with other data
- Reusable
-
data are associated with ample metadata, documentation and uncertainty
estimates such that the scope of the re-use becomes immediately clear to
the re-user
We present the results of an even-handed self-assessment of LTA WDCC along the
lines of the FAIR principles as
described in detail by the
GOFAIR initiative
on the pages linked below. This assessment is intended for DKRZ user information
and guidance.