WorldFAIR (D5.3) Guidelines for implementing Geochemistry FIPs

As a long-tail scientific discipline with highly specific and heterogeneous analytical methods, the geochemistry community faces challenges in achieving FAIR data compliance. While many repositories satisfy the Findable and Accessible principles of FAIR, increased modernisation of existing standards and development of additional data standards are required to achieve Interoperability and Reusability of data. 

This third deliverable of the WorldFAIR Geochemistry Work Package (WP05) aims to guide the geochemistry data infrastructure community towards convergence by identifying FAIR Enabling Resources (FERs) that are currently being used by the geosciences community.  Promulgation of used resources and their uptake by other infrastructure providers is part of the push towards convergence. The WorldFAIR Geochemistry Work Package proposes creating a reference FIP or catalogue of FERs to promote interoperability and prevent duplication of efforts. The geochemistry reference FIP is designed as a living document, allowing continual updates by the community. It serves as a tool for laboratories, repositories, and infrastructure providers to enhance data FAIRness. Through the provision of a reference FAIR Implementation Profile (FIP) or catalogue of FERs as part of this report, data providers and producers are provided with a tool to help select FERs when building or updating their infrastructure to become more FAIR.

Together with the second deliverable (D5.2) of the WorldFAIR Geochemistry Work Package which outlined the usefulness and importance of FIPs, this report and the associated reference FIP can be used by the geochemistry community - particularly by data creators and providers - to improve their FAIRness. We recommend that new and emerging geochemistry data producers and providers consult the geochemistry reference FIP and ideally choose to implement existing FERs, although the selection and implementation of FERs should align with the principles and community needs that the specific data system serves.

The goal is to facilitate the implementation of commonly-used FERs, and so improving data FAIRness, with a resource that fosters interoperability, accelerates convergence on data standards, and ultimately enhances the accessibility and reusability of geochemical data. This report and the reference FIP aim to encourage the reuse of available resources, prevent duplication, and enhance convergence on data standards within the geochemistry community. Community collaboration, the continuous evolution of the living reference FIP document to support FAIR compliance and convergence towards standardisation are needed to continue improving FAIRness in the geochemistry data community.

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WorldFAIR is funded by the EC HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ERA-01-41 Coordination and Support Action under Grant Agreement No. 101058393.