F.A.I.R. research principles

Vanessa Tuckfield updates the CC Australia community on extending F.A.I.R. research principles to all research outputs.

By Vanessa Tuckfield, Chapter member and member of the Communications Working Group

Much of the discussion around open publishing of research has focussed on the Open Access movement. While this does encompass some aspects of the Creative Commons movement, Open Access includes publishing ‘All Rights Reserved’, but removing barriers like ‘paywalls’.

Taking that open mind set one step further requires the addition of a Creative Common licence to the research. This can be done when publishing in institutional repositories or publishing through open journals, that allow CC licences.

In 2016, the Universities Australia Deputy Vice Chancellors (Research) Committee convened a working group to develop policy on research outputs. The working group developed the F.A.I.R. statement, and the Universities through Universities Australia agreed to the policy. The Council of Australian University Libraries (CAUL) and the Australasian Open Access Strategy Group (AOASG) were tasked to implement the policy within Australian universities. They formed the F.A.I.R. Steering Group to work towards removing barriers and increasing the discoverability, use and impact of Australia’s research outputs.

Members of the working group are:

  • Australian Research Council (ARC)
  • National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
  • Open Access Australasia (formerly AOASG)
  • Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
  • Australasian Research Management Society (ARMS)
  • Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)
  • Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA)
  • Australian Government – Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE)
  • Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL)
  • Universities Australia (UA)

While the original statement focussed on research data, the principles can be applied to any research outputs.

The basic premise of the F.A.I.R. principles is that the research is:

  • F            Findable
  • A            Accessible
  • I             Interoperable
  • R            Reusable

Adding the Creative Commons licence of CC BY (Attribution) ensures that the principles are applied in their best form.

You can find out more about the F.A.I.R. principles from these sources:

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