Creating lightweight FAIR Digital Objects with RO-Crate and FAIR Signposting

RO-Crate is a lightweight method to package research outputs along with their metadata, based on Linked Data principles and W3C standards. RO-Crate provides a flexible mechanism for researchers archiving and publishing rich data packages (or any other research outcome) by capturing their dependencies and context. However, additional measures should be taken to ensure that a crate is also following the FAIR principles, including consistent use of persistent identifiers, provenance, community standards, clear machine/human-readable licensing for metadata and data, and Web publication of RO-Crates.

The FAIR Digital Object (FDO) approach gives a set of recommendations that aims to improve findability, accessibility, interoperability and reproducibility for any digital object, allowing implementation through different protocols or standards.

Here we present how we have followed the FDO recommendations and turned research outcomes into FDOs by publishing RO-Crates on the Web using HTTP, following best practices for Linked Data. We highlight challenges and advantages of the FDO approach, and reflect on what is required for an FDO profile to achieve FAIR RO-Crates.