GO-Plan: A goal-oriented method for FAIRification planning

Information Services & Use, vol. 45, pp. 100–124

Abstract

The FAIR principles provide guidance on improving the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability of digital resources. Since the publication of the principles, several workflows have been proposed to support the process of making data FAIR (FAIRification). However, to respect the uniqueness of different communities, both the principles and the available workflows have been deliberately designed to remain agnostic in terms of standards, tools, and implementation choices. Consequently, FAIRification needs to be properly planned, and implementation details must be discussed with stakeholders and aligned with FAIRification objectives. To support this need, this paper describes GO-Plan, a method for identifying and refining FAIRification objectives. Leveraging on best practices from requirements and ontology engineering, the method aims at incrementally elaborating the most obvious aspects of the domain (e.g. the initial set of elements to be collected) into complex and comprehensive objectives. The definition of clear objectives enables stakeholders to communicate effectively and make informed implementation decisions, such as defining achievement criteria for distinct principles and identifying relevant metadata to be collected. GO-Plan has been validated in multiple discussion sessions with experts on FAIR, in an application to a real use case and in two hands-on tutorials with end-users.

Authors 9

1. César H. Bernabé corresponding Aachen Department of Human Genetics

   Leiden University Medical Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University Medical Center

   Department of Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

2. Tiago Prince Sales

   University of Twente

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Twente

   Semantics, Cybersecurity & Services (SCS), University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

3. Erik Schultes Aachen Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research

   Leiden University · GO FAIR Foundation

   Affiliation as printed

   GO FAIR Foundation

   The Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research

   GO FAIR Foundation, Leiden, The Netherlands

   The Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research, Leiden, The Netherlands

4. Niek R. van Ulzen

   Health-RI

   Affiliation as printed

   Health-RI

   Health-RI, Utrecht, The Netherlands

5. Vítor E. Silva Souza

   Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo

   Affiliation as printed

   Federal University of Espírito Santo

   Ontology & Conceptual Modeling Research Group (NEMO), Federal University of Espírito Santo, Vitória, Brazil

6. Annika Jacobsen Aachen Department of Human Genetics

   Leiden University Medical Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University Medical Center

   Department of Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

7. Luiz Olavo Bonino da Silva Santos Aachen Department of Human Genetics

   Leiden University Medical Center · University of Twente

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University Medical Center

   University of Twente

   Department of Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

   Semantics, Cybersecurity & Services (SCS), University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

8. Barend Mons Aachen Department of Human Genetics

   Leiden University Medical Center · GO FAIR Foundation

   Affiliation as printed

   GO FAIR Foundation

   Leiden University Medical Center

   Department of Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

   GO FAIR Foundation, Leiden, The Netherlands

9. Marco Roos Aachen Department of Human Genetics

   Leiden University Medical Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University Medical Center

   Department of Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands