Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A data-management-plan template suggesting the author identify a FAIRsharing-registered repository for their domain.
- Is an instance
A journal's data-deposit policy citing FAIRsharing as the authoritative list of acceptable repositories.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A generic search engine is not FAIRsharing.
- Not an instance
An institution's local list of supported repositories is not FAIRsharing.
Editorial commentary
FAIRsharing is a curated, community-governed registry connecting three types of research infrastructure: databases and repositories, metadata/reporting standards, and the data policies (from funders, journals, and institutions) that reference them. It traces its lineage from the MIBBI portal (2008), through the life-sciences-focused BioSharing registry launched in 2011, to its 2017 rename and cross-disciplinary broadening as FAIRsharing — led by Professor Susanna-Assunta Sansone’s group, now based at the University of Oxford.
What a FAIRsharing record actually contains
Each registered entity — whether a repository, a metadata standard, or a policy document — carries structured metadata about its scope, maintenance status, contributors, and its relationships to other registered entities, so a standard’s record shows which repositories implement it and a policy’s record shows which standards it requires. That cross-linking is the registry’s real value over a flat directory: it lets a researcher start from any one of the three (a policy they must comply with, a standard their field uses, a repository they’re considering) and navigate to the others. As of a 2022 count the registry held over 3,600 curated resources; re-verify the current figure directly against fairsharing.org rather than treating that as current.
Where a research administrator encounters it
FAIRsharing is widely referenced in data management plan templates as the controlled list a researcher is pointed to when selecting a repository or standard, and in journal data-availability policies as the authoritative reference for “an appropriate public repository.” It complements rather than duplicates re3data, which is repository-only; FAIRsharing’s distinguishing feature is treating standards and policies as first-class, cross-linked registry entries alongside repositories, not an afterthought.
References
- Sansone S.-A. et al., ‘FAIRsharing as a community approach to standards, repositories and policies’, Nature Biotechnology 37(4), 2019.
Also known as
FAIRsharing · BioSharing
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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