The 16th International Conference on Open Repositories (OR2021) was centred around the theme “Open for all”. During the 90-minute workshop, the audience of more than 100 repository managers, research data librarians, and data stewards were introduced to different tools and services of the FAIRsFAIR project that can help them and their services become more FAIR-enabling.
The FAIR-Aware tool was introduced to the audience as a way for anyone handling data to learn more about the FAIR principles. Given the strong collaboration required between researchers and repositories to make a dataset FAIR during the archiving process, it is recommended that repository managers get familiar with the tool to realise what considerations researchers encounter when choosing a repository to deposit their dataset in and how their repository can cater to that.
Positive feedback
Audience members were given some time to explore the tool at their own pace and evaluate it. Nearly 75% of returned feedback showed interest in using FAIR-Aware and the other FAIRsFAIR tools in personal training efforts. When asked “How useful do you rate FAIR-Aware to be for supporting researchers and data stewards in making data FAIR?”, audience feedback showed an average rating of more than 3.5 stars out of 5. Feedback in the chat was also very positive towards the tool and the services provided by FAIRsFAIR in general.
The FAIR-Aware tool is hosted and maintained by DANS, and is still in continuous development based on the user feedback received. As can be seen in the recent overview of the user statistics, repository managers do not make up a large part of the user base. This workshop was an effort to promote the tool in this audience, so the perspective and evaluation of these stakeholders can be included in the further development of the tool.
More information
To read about the entire “How repositories can increase their FAIR share” workshop, see this blog post. For any further questions about the tool, you can contact the FAIR-Aware development team.
