Unsure where to start?

Continue reading for tips on discovering the resources you need with FAIRsharing.

FAIRsharing describes more than 4700 databases, standards, and policies as well as the relationships among them, so we understand if you may not be sure where to start.

As described in our FAIRsharing in a nutshell educational factsheet (see https://fairsharing.org/educational for a complete list), there are three main ways FAIRsharing is used: to discover resources, to create content, and to access its content from a third-party tool.

Are you interested in discovering a database, standard or policy relevant to your research? You might want to start with our Search, Advanced Search or Browse Subjects pages to get to know our main search methods.

Are you interested in creating or updating one of our records? Then you might want to see How to Update a Record.

Are you a tool developer wishing to use our content or to create new records programmatically? Take a look at our section on Programmatic Access.

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If you would like a little additional guidance, please read the following user stories that showcases just a few of the many ways FAIRsharing helps researchers and those in research support roles.

User journey: FAIRsharing across the research data life cycle

This user story follows Alice, a clinical researcher managing a multi-centre multi-omics study, through every stage of the research data life cycle — from writing her Data Management Plan to demonstrating the FAIRness of her deposited data. Rather than focusing on FAIRsharing's search features directly, this journey shows how FAIRsharing's manually curated content powers the external tools and services that researchers rely on day to day, acting as a trusted point of truth across the wider research data management ecosystem.

User journey: discovering resources

This user story follows Alice, a university librarian, and Bob, a multi-omics researcher, as they use FAIRsharing's search, browse, and relation graph features to find the right standards and databases for Bob's project. Starting from his funder's data policy, they show how FAIRsharing can help you move from a compliance requirement to a curated shortlist of community-endorsed resources.