Roadmap for “FAIR Phytoliths: Increasing the FAIRness of phytolith data”

The FAIR Phytoliths project has grown from initial efforts by Emma Karoune to raise awareness on limited data sharing within the community of phytolith researchers. This initiative is supported by the International Phytolith Society (IPS) and represents the first steps towards the FAIRification of phytolith data.

Please check out our contributor guidelines and our community’s code of conduct to help you get started, and the home page for an overview of the project (if you have not read it yet)!

Milestone 1: Community building and training for FAIRification - throughout the project

Institute an official standing committee of the International Phytolith Society (IPS).
Disseminate the project’s mission in academic environments:
- Conference paper at the 12th International Meeting for Phytolith Research, September 2021.
Creating a survey about data sharing practices.
Distribute the survey within the community.

Milestone 2: Establish infrastructure - short term

Open a GitHub repository.
Designing a webpage to advertise and promote the project to the phytolith community and to gain contributors.
Open social communication channels (Slack, Twitter, etc.).
Creating an “advertising” slide to be shown at the end of presentations.

Milestone 3: FAIR assessment of existing data - medium term

Analyising survey data sharing practices, expectations and predisposition within the phytolith community.
Conduct a FAIR assessment of phytolith sharing data using two regional studies: Europe and South America.

Milestone 4: Development of guidelines for existing datasets and future FAIR phytolith data - long-term

Create and publish a protocol for phytolith (raw) data publication and sharing.
Publish a peer-reviewed open-access research article to share findings of the FAIR assessment and the new data sharing criteria.