Object Types

Object types define the type of digital research object that is in scope for the resource described by a FAIRsharing record.

Why is this important?

Describing the type of resource you provide helps users understand its role within the research ecosystem and improves the accuracy of searches and comparisons across FAIRsharing.

FAIR: Supports Findability by providing rich metadata describing the type of resource.

Please use the table below to understand how object types are curated for each record type within FAIRsharing (more examples are provided with the object type definitions listed after this table):

It is mandatory to provide at least one object type for all record types other than collections. It is recommended that collections have at least one object type.

Please use the most precise object type(s) that accurately reflect the type of digital research object that is in scope for your resource.

If your resource is relevant across all types of object, please use the object type agnostic tag only.

If your resource contains a type of object not covered by any of the existing tags, please use the other object type tag only.

Resource type	The object type answers the question...	Examples
Database	What kind of content is stored within the database?	Intact, a repository for protein interaction data.
Standard	What type of object does the standard apply to?	SBML applies to models; QuakeML applies to (seismological) datasets.
Policies	What kind of research object does this policy cover?	The Royal Society publisher policy covers guidance for publications, and for publishing datasets and software within them; all of these object types are listed.
Collections	What is the general scope of this collection?	Note that object types are optional for collections, as often the scope is too wide for useful addition of this curation.
FAIRassist metrics and benchmarks	What kind of research object does is evaluated by this metric/benchmark?	The CESSDA data catalogue benchmark evaluates datasets.

These object types were developed in collaboration with the community. Details of the specification of these object types and crosswalks to a number of community terminologies are available in the OSTrails digital object commons repository.

dataset

Any experimental or observational data; a body of structured information describing some topic(s) of interest.

Database Example: Intact, a repository for protein interaction data. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.d05nwx

IRI: https://schema.org/Dataset Definition source: modified from https://schema.org/Dataset

image

Where the digital research object is

(i) image based, e.g. microscope, telescope, gel images, or (ii) highly visual, e.g. maps

Please note

• 'multimedia' (for video or audio) is a separate tag in FAIRsharing.

• if the object type is a digital representation (including images, 3d scans) of a physical object (e.g. a natural history collection), then please use the 'physical object/material' tag instead.

Standards Example: Flexible Image Transport System (FITS), a digital file format useful for storage, transmission and processing of scientific and other images in astronomy. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.xvash1

IRI: https://schema.org/ImageObject Definition source: FAIRsharing

multimedia

Any multimedia object, such as video or audio, embedded in a web page or a downloadable dataset. Please note that 'image' is a separate tag in FAIRsharing.

Database Example: Databrary, a restricted access data library that is specialized for storing, streaming, and sharing video and audio recordings collected as research data or documentation. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.0a42a6

IRI: https://schema.org/MediaObject Definition source: modified from https://schema.org/MediaObject

publication

A scholarly article that includes both 'traditional' journal publications as well as more general publication types such as reports, pre-prints and theses.

Standards Example: MARC-XML, a standard for the representation and communication of bibliographic and related information in machine-readable form. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.217b1b

IRI: https://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle Definition source: FAIRsharing

questionnaire/survey

A document with a set of printed or written questions with a choice of answers, devised for the purposes of a survey or statistical study.

Database Example: CLOSER Discovery, a repository of questionnaires and data from the UK's longitudinal studies. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.L9UwAM

IRI: http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/NHD0-W6SY Definition source: OBI questionnaire

data management plan

Statement describing how research data will be managed throughout a specified research project's life cycle - during and after the active phase of the research project - including terms regarding archiving and potential preservation of the data in a data repository. The data management plan (DMP) is considered to be a 'living' document, i.e. one which can be updated when necessary.

Policy Example: BBSRC Data Sharing Policy, which covers DMPs (among other object types). https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.caqb1r

IRI: https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_ab20/ Definition Source: https://terms.codata.org/rdmt/data-management-plan

document

A generic object type for any electronic file or document that does not fit into any of the other document sub-types listed above (publication, questionnaire/survey or data management plan). This object type includes any kind of document or text file, as well as training material e.g. presentations, and coursework.

Database Example: LifeWatch ERIC Training Catalogue. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.ea79c7

IRI: https://schema.org/DigitalDocument Definition source: FAIRsharing and https://schema.org/DigitalDocument

terminology artifact

A set of defined terms, for example a set of categories or a classification scheme, a glossary, dictionary, ontology, vocabulary, terminology, or thesaurus.

Database Example: AgroPortal, a repository that stores ontologies. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.z4xpxx

IRI: https://schema.org/DefinedTermSet Definition source: FAIRsharing and https://schema.org/DefinedTermSet

software source code

Computer programming source code. Example: Full (compile ready) solutions, code snippet samples, scripts, templates.

Database Example: Software Heritage, a repository for software source code. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.6ffb92

IRI: https://schema.org/SoftwareSourceCode Definition source: https://schema.org/SoftwareSourceCode

software application

An application or tool that is running or ready to run; the product of compiling or executing software source code.

Standards Example: Simple Application Messaging Protocol (SAMP), a messaging protocol used in the astronomy community that enables astronomy software tools to interoperate and communicate. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.dkKf7I

IRI: https://schema.org/SoftwareApplication Definition source: FAIRsharing

model

An abstract, conceptual, graphical, mathematical or visualization model that represents empirical objects, phenomena, or physical processes. This includes, e.g., modelled descriptions of different aspects of languages, a molecular biology reaction chain, a systems biology model or a mathematical model of any kind.

Standards Example: SBML, a machine-readable exchange format for computational models of biological processes. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.9qv71f

IRI: http://semanticscience.org/resource/SIO_000510 Definition source: DataCite (https://datacite-metadata-schema.readthedocs.io/en/4.5/appendices/appendix-1/resourceTypeGeneral/#model)

protocol or workflow

Should be used whenever the resource's scope includes any type of protocol or workflow; protocols are considered specialised workflows and as such are included within a single object type. Workflows are considered to be the operational aspect of a work procedure: how tasks are structured, who performs them, what their relative order is, how they are synchronized, how information flows to support the tasks and how tasks are being tracked. Protocols are plans/workflows that provide a sufficient level of detail and quantitative information to communicate it, so that different agents will reliably be able to independently reproduce the process.

Database Example: WorkflowHub, https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.07cf72. Protocols.io, https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.132b10.

IRI: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/NCIT_C42753 Definition source: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/NCIT_C42753, http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/OBI_0000272 and FAIRsharing

physical object/material

Should be used when the resource's scope is the digital representation of material or physical objects, e.g. digitised museum collections or a cell culture database.

Database Example: The Natural History Museum's data portal, which contains digitised specimens from the Museum's collection database. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.88ea35

IRI: https://schema.org/IndividualProduct Definition source: FAIRsharing

object type agnostic

Used when the resource is applicable across all object types. If your resource is relevant across all types of object, please use the object type agnostic tag only.

Database Example: Wikidata, which acts as central storage for the structured data of its Wikimedia sister projects. Despite its name, it allows any type of digital object to be uploaded. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.6s749p

IRI: https://schema.org/CreativeWork Definition source: FAIRsharing

other object type

This type should only be used if absolutely none of the other types are suitable and the resource is not agnostic of any particular object type. In other words, only use this when the object type for the resource is not among any of the other types listed above.

Database Example: FAIRsharing, a registry rather than a traditional database, which stores information on other resources. https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.2abjs5

IRI: https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_1843/ Definition source: FAIRsharing

object type not found

Only used for certain older records, when the FAIRsharing team can no longer find information on the object type (e.g. older deprecated records).

IRI: https://fairsharing.org/FAIRsharing.NFOBJT Definition source: FAIRsharing