Overview
We have followed the approach taken by several groups to create a list of “Things” that can serve as stand-alone guides for self-directed inquiry (e.g., Library Carpentry and collaborators’ Top 10 FAIR Data & Software Things; Australian Research Data Commons’ 23 (research data) things; Griffith University Library and eResearch Services’ Reproducible-Research-Things; Briney et al. Foundational Practices of Research Data Management).
Our focus is specifically on the key issues of curating reproducible and FAIR research. We build on prior work and only include standards and practices that enhance the publication and archival preservation of FAIR and computationally reproducible research compendia.
In practice, the “Things” are interrelated to some extent, but we try to tease out the fundamental principles. Each “Thing” begins with a section describing the issue followed by three actionable sections: Get started, Learn more, and Go deeper.
The “10 Things for Curating Reproducible and FAIR Research” addresses the following questions:
Does the research compendium contain everything needed to reproduce a predefined outcome in an organized and parsimonious way?
Thing 1: Completeness: The research compendium contains all of the objects needed to reproduce a predefined outcome.
Thing 2: Organization: It is easy to understand and keep track of the various objects in the research compendium and their relationship over time.
Thing 3: Economy: Fewer extraneous objects in the compendium mean fewer things that can break and require less maintenance over time.
Is descriptive information about the research compendium and its components available and easy to understand?
Thing 4: Transparency: The research compendium provides full disclosure of the research process that produced the scientific claim.
Thing 5: Documentation: Information describing compendium objects is provided in enough detail to enable independent understanding and use of the compendium.
Is information about how the research compendium and its components can be used available and easy to understand?
Thing 6: Access: It is clear who can use what, how, and under what conditions, with open access preferred.
Thing 7: Provenance: The origin of the components of the research compendium and how each has changed over time is evident.
Is information about the research compendium and its components embedded in code?
Thing 8: Metadata: Information about the research compendium and its components is embedded in a standardized, machine-readable code.
Thing 9: Automation: As much as possible, the computational workflow is script- or workflow-based so that the workflow can be re-executed using minimal actions.