Advancing FAIR data towards comparable, organized, predictive AI-ready data for community validation
The interrogation of data across biological and environmental systems has become increasingly complex. Fortunately, communities are adopting the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data principles for individual datasets, and continue to develop domain-specific, machine-actionable standards. However, integrating FAIR data for meta-analysis across data resources is still challenging. Understanding how disparate datasets are organized remains a manual, time-consuming process. Updating FAIR databases to reflect changes in knowledge is slow, allowing stale annotations and incorrect relationships to propagate, amplified by Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems that harvest data. Building on FAIR, we argue that data should be iteratively updated and improved. FAIR + COPE (Comparable, Organized, Predictive, Engaged) takes FAIR data and makes it Comparable, rapidly Organized (applying / updating standards) for Predictive models, which can be validated and improved by an Engaged community. We provide examples of FAIR + COPE resources and science use cases that highlight the importance of FAIR + COPE in scientific research.
Authors
- Elisha M. Wood‐Charlson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9557-7715)
- Chris Mungall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6601-2165)
- Ishwar Chandramouliswaran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9697-9599)
- Nigel J. Mouncey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5380-1256)
- Paramvir Dehal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5810-2497)
- Lindsey Anderson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8741-7823)
- Julia Koblitz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7260-2129)
- V. Ratna Saripalli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8569-4846)
- Thomas Metz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6049-3968)
- Mitchel J. Doktycz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4856-8343)
- Susannah Green Tringe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6479-8427)
- Charles Thomas Parker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7436-3176)
- Lee Ann McCue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4456-517X)
- Kjiersten Fagnan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6504-849X)
- Emiley A. Eloe‐Fadrosh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8162-1276)
- Adam P. Arkin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4999-2931)
- Mahantesh Halappanavar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2323-4753)
- Sylvain V. Costes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8542-2389)
- Bonnie Hurwitz
- Tim Van Den Bossche (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5916-2587)
- Oliver Fiehn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6261-8928)
- Gazi Mahmud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4046-889X)
- Mikayla A. Borton
- Sean Jungbluth
- Christopher Henry
- Stephen K. Burley
- Amanda M. Saravia-Butler
- Neil Byers
- Tiffanie M. Nelson
- Wolmar N. Åkerström (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3890-6620)
- Marcin P. Joachimiak
Institutions
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
- Ames Research Center (US)
- Argonne National Laboratory (US)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (US)
- University of Arizona (US)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (US)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Joint Genome Institute (US)
- Science for Life Laboratory (SE)
- Ghent University (BE)
- Office of the Director (US)
- Institute for Biomedicine (IT)
- VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology (BE)
- National Institute of Mental Health (CZ)
- San Francisco State University (US)
- Australian Institute of Family Studies (AU)
- Leibniz Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DE)
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Colorado State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Biology
- Published
- 2026-07-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10694-y
- Primary Topic
- Scientific Computing and Data Management
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- University of Pittsburgh
- Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Science for Life Laboratory
- Vlaamse regering
- National Institutes of Health
- Office of Science
- Science Mission Directorate
- Leibniz-Gemeinschaft
- NIH Office of the Director
- National Cancer Institute
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
- Division of Biological Infrastructure
- Biological and Environmental Research
- Nuclear Physics
- Leibniz-Institut für Naturstoff-Forschung und Infektionsbiologie – Hans-Knöll-Institut