FAIR Enough? Why Isn't More Data Being Reused?

A decade on from the FAIR principles, open research data is being deposited at remarkable scale. But is anyone actually using it? Too often the answer is no: the data sits in generic repositories, compliant with a checkbox version of FAIR that falls short of the original aspiration of truly reusable data. The data that does get reused tends to live in domain-specific repositories, like the Protein Data Bank or GenBank. When a whole field deposits in one place, under shared standards and formats, the collection becomes consistent and indispensable, and gets used no matter how clunky the interface. That works brilliantly where it happens, but few fields can assemble the coordinated, sustained effort it demands, and others have data far too heterogeneous to consolidate this way. A good open-data experience, though, can be driven either by consistency or by design. Drawing on the lessons, and missteps, of building Alplakes, a small, award-winning platform for Alpine lake data, I’ll make the case that using design to deliver an excellent user experience can provide a tenable alternative, achievable for small teams with limited resources. By making data a pleasure to access and reuse, we can bring the original vision of FAIR to a far wider range of open data.