Dear FAIR4RS WG,
I would like to share with you the final version of the FAIRsFAIR FAIRness
of services assessment framework, developed by task 2.4 of the FAIRsFAIR EU
project.
Following up the question in this email’s subject (1) and continuing with a
question asked during VP17 session (2):
1.
Are services considered software?
2.
Should services be FAIR?
A service (running software) is an instantiation of software which is
dependent on the hosting platform of this service. The software behind this
instantiation, if it is by itself Research Softwar, should be FAIR
separately from its running form.
If the software is serving research, it might act on data and enable FAIR
data/objects. This is why services should be FAIR enabling and not FAIR
digital objects.
You might ask what is FAIR enabling?
From the recently published assessment framework:
“The service enables FAIR data by elevating the FAIRness of digital objects
and/or supporting the FAIRification process. FAIR enablement is actively
driven through the implementation of community-supported standards and
interoperability frameworks.
The following classification defines the levels in which a service affects
the FAIRness of data on which it operates.
–
Enable:
–
Augment: The service provides elements improving FAIRness of the
digital object — for example automatically assigning a PID;
–
Facilitate: The service actively helps to realize a particular FAIR
principle — for example by allowing the user to add metadata or enabling
discoverability;
–
Respect: The service neither actively enables a particular FAIR
principle nor interferes with it — it can be said to respect the
“FAIR-in-FAIR-out” principle;
–
Reduce: The service actually makes data less FAIR — at least for a
particular principle — for example by detaching metadata or a PID when it
acts on a digital object.”
You can find all seven aspects with their detailed recommendations in:
Ramezani, Sara, Aalto, Tero, Gruenpeter, Morane, Herterich, Patricia,
Hooft, Rob, & Koers, Hylke. (2021). D2.7 Framework for assessing FAIR
Services (V1.0_DRAFT). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5336234
Let me know your thoughts via the mailing list and see you at VP18.
Best regards,
—
Morane Ottilia GRUENPETER
Software engineer and metadata specialist
Software Heritage http://www.softwareheritage.org
@INRIA Paris
personal website: http://moranegg.github.io/