Imperial College London

Henry Rzepa

The site [fairsharing.org](https://fairsharing.org/) is a repository of
information about FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and
Reusable) objects such as research data.  
![](https://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/240-1024x478.jpg){.aligncenter
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A project to inject chemical components, rather sparse at the moment at
the above site, is being promoted by workshops under the auspices of
e.g. [IUPAC and
CODATA](https://iupac.org/event/supporting-fair-exchange-chemical-data-standards-development/) and
the [GO-FAIR initiative](https://www.go-fair.org). One aspect of this
activity is to help identify examples of both good (FAIR) and indeed
less good (unFAIR) research data as associated with contemporary
scientific journal publications.

Here is one example I came across in
2017.\[cite\]10.1021/jacs.6b13229\[/cite\]. The data associated with
this article is certainly copious, 907 pages of it, not including data
for 21 crystal structures! The latter is a good example of FAIR, being
offered in a standard format (CIF) well-adapted for the type of data
contained therein and for which there are numerous programs capable of
visualising and inter-operating (*i.e.* re-using) it. The former is in
PDF, not a format originally developed for data and one could argue is
closer to the unFAIR end of the spectrum. More so when you consider this
one 907-page paginated document contains diverse information including
spectra on around 60 molecules. Thus the spectra are all purely visual;
they are obviously data but in a form largely designed for human
consumption and not re-use by software. The text-based content of this
PDF does have numerous pattens, which lends itself to pattern
recognition software such as OSCAR, but patterns are easily broken by
errors or inexperience and so we cannot be certain what proportion of
this can be recovered. The metadata associated with such a collection,
if there is any at all, must be general and cannot be easily related to
specific molecules in the collection. So I would argue that 907 pages of
data as wrapped in PDF is not a good example of FAIR. But it is how
almost all of the data currently being reported in chemistry journals is
expressed. Indeed many a journal data editor (a relatively new
introduction to the editorial teams) exerts a rigorous oversight over
the data presented as part of article submissions to ensure it adheres
to this monolithic PDF format.

You can also visit this article in Chemistry World
([rsc.li/2HG7lTk](https://rsc.li/2HG7lTk){rel="nofollow"}) for an
alternative view of what could be regarded as rather more FAIR data. The
article has citations to the FAIR components, which is not published as
part of the article or indeed by the journal itself but is held
separately in a research data repository. You will find that at
doi: [10.14469/hpc/3657](https://doi.org/10.14469/hpc/3657) where
examples of computational, crystallographic and spectroscopic data are
available.

The workshop I allude to above will be held in July. Can I ask anyone
reading this blog who has a favourite FAIR or indeed unFAIR example of
data they have come across to share these here. We also need to identify
areas simply crying out for FAIRer data to be made available as part of
the publishing process beyond the types noted above. I hope to report
back on both such feedback and the events at this workshop in due
course.

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The site fairsharing.org is a repository of information about FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) objects such as research data. A project to inject chemical components, rather sparse at the moment at the above site, is being promoted by workshops under the auspices of e.g. IUPAC and CODATA and the GO-FAIR initiative.

Rogue Scholar Posts

Examples please of FAIR (data); good and bad.