[MA 2023 09 ] Advancing FAIR education: a comprehensive review and assessment of educational resources for FAIR Data Stewardship

Amsterdam UMC, location AMC, Department of Medical Informatics

Proposed by: Martijn Kersloot [m.g.kersloot@amsterdamumc.nl ]

Introduction

In 2016, the FAIR Data Principles were published, describing that (research) data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable by humans and machines [1]. Many research institutes and funders around the world are quickly adopting these Principles [2], and as a result, researchers are increasingly being asked or required to make their data (more) FAIR. However, according to a recent survey, only a small percentage of researchers and research support staff actually make their data FAIR, possibly due to a lack of training and support [3].

There are numerous ongoing training initiatives related to FAIR Data Stewardship [4], including the development of competence profiles and learning outcomes for FAIR training in higher education [5]. A comprehensive overview of existing resources would be preferable to prevent trainers from 'reinventing the wheel' and to identify gaps in available training resources. However, such an overview is currently lacking.

Description of the SRP Project/Problem

This Scientific Research Project aims to significantly advance FAIR education by:

• Conducting a systematic review and assessment of existing educational resources related to FAIR Data Stewardship.

• Mapping the found educational resources to the FAIRsFAIR Competence Framework [6] and terms4FAIRskills [7]

• Identifying gaps and challenges in the current landscape of educational resources and suggesting potential improvements for existing and new topics for FAIR educational resources.

Research questions

• What educational resources are currently available to train researchers and research support staff in FAIR Data Stewardship?

• How do these existing resources fit into the FAIRsFAIR Competence Framework and terms4FAIRskills terminology?

• What are the existing gaps and challenges in the current landscape of educational resources, and how should these gaps and challenges be addressed?

Expected results

The intended result of the SRP is a (publishable) scientific article describing currently available and potential new education materials on FAIR Data Stewardship.

Time period

7 months

References

1. Wilkinson MD, Dumontier M, Aalbersberg IjJ, Appleton G, Axton M, Baak A, et al. The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Sci Data 2016;3. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18.

2. van Reisen M, Stokmans M, Basajja M, Ong’ayo AO, Kirkpatrick C, Mons B. Towards the Tipping Point for FAIR Implementation. Data Intelligence 2020;2:264–75. https://doi.org/10.1162/dint_a_00049.

3. Kersloot MG, Abu-Hanna A, Cornet R, Arts DL. Perceptions and behavior of clinical researchers and research support staff regarding data FAIRification. Sci Data 2022;9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01325-2.

4. Shanahan H, Hoebelheinrich N, Whyte A. Progress toward a comprehensive teaching approach to the FAIR data principles. Patterns 2021;2:100324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2021.100324.

5. Engelhardt C, Biernacka K, Coffey A, Cornet R, Danciu A, Demchenko Y, et al. D7.4 How to be FAIR with your data. A teaching and training handbook for higher education institutions 2022. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.6674301.

6. Claudia Engelhardt et al. FAIR teaching handbook [Internet]. 2022 [cited 2023 Jul 31]. Available from: https://fairsfair.gitbook.io/fair-teaching-handbook/

7. The terms4FAIRskills Community. terms4FAIRskills [Internet]. 2022 [cited 2023 Jul 31]. Available from: https://terms4fairskills.github.io/