FHIR for FAIR - FHIR Implementation Guide
1.0.0 - STU 1 International flag

This page is part of the FHIR for FAIR - FHIR Implementation Guide (v1.0.0: STU 1) based on FHIR v4.3.0. This is the current published version in its permanent home (it will always be available at this URL). For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions

RDA Indicators

FAIR Data Maturity Model: specification and guidelines

The FAIR principles have to be considered as inspiring concepts but not strict rules. This means that they may lead to diverse interpretations and ambiguity. To remedy the different forms of FAIR Implementation, the Research Data Alliance (RDA) Working Group “FAIR data maturity model” was established in January 2019 to develop a common set of core assessment criteria for FAIRness, as an RDA Recommendation. In the course of 2019 and the first half of 2020, the WG established a set of indicators and maturity levels for those indicators. The work culminated in the release of the FAIR Data Maturity Model: specification and guidelines. Research Data Alliance. DOI: 10.15497/RDA0050). This excellent specification has been adopted for FAIR assessment throughout this implementation guide. It has also influenced the “Recommendations for services in a FAIR data ecosystem”, which includes the Open Science Cloud (EOSC) DOI: 10.1016/j.patter.2020.100058.

Application of the FAIR Maturity Indicators

The FAIR maturity indicators are designed for re-use in approaches to evaluation. They are accompanied by guidelines for their use which is intended to assist evaluators to implement the indicators in the evaluation approach or tool they manage. The exact way to evaluate data based on the core criteria is up to the owners of the evaluation approaches, taking into account the requirements of their community. The objective is consistency of application to make sure that the indicators, the maturity levels and the prioritisation are understood in the same way.

FAIR Data Maturity Indicators and priority

PRINCIPLE INDICATOR_ID FAIR DATA MATURITY INDICATOR PRIORITY
F F1 RDA-F1-01M Metadata is identified by a persistent identifier Essential
F1 RDA-F1-01D Data is identified by a persistent identifier Essential
F1 RDA-F1-02M Metadata is identified by a globally unique identifier Essential
F1 RDA-F1-02D Data is identified by a globally unique identifier Essential
F2 RDA-F2-01M Rich metadata is provided to allow discovery Essential
F3 RDA-F3-01M Metadata includes the identifier for the data Essential
F4 RDA-F4-01M Metadata is offered in such a way that it can be harvested and indexed Essential
A A1 RDA-A1-01M Metadata contains information to enable the user to get access to the data Important
A1 RDA-A1-02M Metadata can be accessed manually (i.e. with human intervention) Essential
A1 RDA-A1-02D Data can be accessed manually (i.e. with human intervention) Essential
A1 RDA-A1-03M Metadata identifier resolves to a metadata record Essential
A1 RDA-A1-03D Data identifier resolves to a digital object Essential
A1 RDA-A1-04M Metadata is accessed through standardised protocol Essential
A1 RDA-A1-04D Data is accessible through standardised protocol Essential
A1 RDA-A1-05D Data can be accessed automatically (i.e. by a computer program) Important
A1.1 RDA-A1.1-01M Metadata is accessible through a free access protocol Essential
A1.1 RDA-A1.1-01D Data is accessible through a free access protocol Important
A1.2 RDA-A1.2-01D Data is accessible through an access protocol that supports authentication and authorisation Useful
A2 RDA-A2-01M Metadata is guaranteed to remain available after data is no longer available Essential
I I1 RDA-I1-01M Metadata uses knowledge representation expressed in standardised format Important
I1 RDA-I1-01D Data uses knowledge representation expressed in standardised format Important
I1 RDA-I1-02M Metadata uses machine-understandable knowledge representation Important
I1 RDA-I1-02D Data uses machine-understandable knowledge representation Important
I2 RDA-I2-01M Metadata uses FAIR-compliant vocabularies Important
I2 RDA-I2-01D Data uses FAIR-compliant vocabularies Useful
I3 RDA-I3-01M Metadata includes references to other metadata Important
I3 RDA-I3-01D Data includes references to other data Useful
I3 RDA-I3-02M Metadata includes references to other data Useful
I3 RDA-I3-02D Data includes qualified references to other data Useful
I3 RDA-I3-03M Metadata includes qualified references to other metadata Important
I3 RDA-I3-04M Metadata include qualified references to other data Useful
R R1 RDA-R1-01M Plurality of accurate and relevant attributes are provided to allow reuse Essential
R1.1 RDA-R1.1-01M Metadata includes information about the licence under which the data can be reused Essential
R1.1 RDA-R1.1-02M Metadata refers to a standard reuse licence Important
R1.1 RDA-R1.1-03M Metadata refers to a machine-understandable reuse licence Important
R1.2 RDA-R1.2-01M Metadata includes provenance information according to community-specific standards Important
R1.2 RDA-R1.2-02M Metadata includes provenance information according to a cross-community language Useful
R1.3 RDA-R1.3-01M Metadata complies with a community standard Essential
R1.3 RDA-R1.3-01D Data complies with a community standard Essential
R1.3 RDA-R1.3-02M Metadata is expressed in compliance with a machine-understandable community standard Essential
R1.3 RDA-R1.3-02D Data is expressed in compliance with a machine-understandable community standard Important