A new ERINHA publication on FAIRer digital resources for sensitive life-sciences data

An iterative and interdisciplinary categorisation process towards FAIRer digital resources for sensitive life-sciences data

Sensitive data offer an additional layer of difficulty to life science infrastructures. Major interoperability issues are presented by the cross-domain categorization and finding of digital resources related to sensitive data. A toolkit demonstrator intending to support for the finding of digital objects connected to sensitive data (e.g., rules, guidelines, best practices, tools) has been developed to support this FAIRification process.
The toolkit is built on a classification scheme that was created and standardized among a group of six life science research infrastructures.
A system with seven main categories was eventually developed after three different versions were produced and tested during additional pilot experiments (sensitive data type, resource type, research field, data type, stage in data sharing life cycle, geographical scope, specific topics).

The starting content for the toolbox demonstrator, a software tool that enables searching of digital items linked to sensitive data with filtering based on the categorization system, was 109 resources attached with the tags from pilot study 3. A thorough assessment of the toolbox’s usability and user-friendliness, the addition of new resources, a wider adoption by various life-science communities, and a long-term strategy for maintenance and sustainability are crucial next stages.

The publication is available here.