> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://fairsharing.gitbook.io/fairsharing/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://fairsharing.gitbook.io/fairsharing/fair-assistance/fair-enabling-databases/fair-f3-for-database-evaluation.md).

# FAIR F3 for database evaluation

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## FAIR Principle F3: Metadata clearly and explicitly include the identifier of the data they describe

<https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.820324>

FAIR Principle F3 requires that metadata clearly and explicitly include the identifier of the data they describe. Within the ARK-based benchmarks, this principle focuses on whether database metadata explicitly identifies both itself and the database it describes.

This principle supports unambiguous relationships between metadata and the resources they represent. Clear identifier relationships help users, machines, and assessment services reliably determine which database is being described and which metadata record is being evaluated.

Within the ARK-based benchmarks, F3 is interpreted through two complementary requirements:

* the machine-actionable metadata describing the database should contain the identifier of that metadata record itself;
* the metadata should also contain the identifier of the database being described.

The metrics associated with F3 evaluate whether these identifier relationships are explicitly represented within FAIRsharing database metadata.

**Database FAIR-Enabling Characteristics**

<table><thead><tr><th width="105.98828125">Context</th><th>Database FAIR-enabling characteristic</th><th width="241.05078125">FAIRsharing operationalisation</th><th>Metric</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>🏛</td><td>Database metadata explicitly identifies itself and the database it describes</td><td>Presence of both a FAIRsharing <a href="/pages/-Mcht7TkqpJOVmEMALVO#getting-a-record-doi">record identifier</a> (DOI and/or FAIRsharing URL) and a database <a href="/pages/-MkbD6E6_TCwnqPhPtoR">homepage URL</a> within the FAIRsharing metadata representation.</td><td><a href="https://fairsharing.org/8372">FAIR Metric - F3 - Resource identifiers in registry metadata</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

**Future Work**

The current ARK-based benchmarks evaluate the presence of identifiers describing both the FAIRsharing record and the database it represents. Future versions may introduce stricter evaluations of these identifiers, including assessment of their persistence, global uniqueness, and resolvability characteristics. Note, however, that such evaluations would likely be addressed separately through the F1 metrics.