The European Commission Expert Group on FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) Data has recently issued its Final Report and Action Plan, "Turning Fair into Reality". The report actually goes beyond data and considers FAIR digital objects broadly, which could also include software, for example. This is available as a free download at:

Turning FAIR into reality - Publications Office of the EU

To take advantage of the digital revolution, to accelerate research, to engage the power of machine analysis at scale while ensuring transparency, reproducibility and societal utility, data and other digital objects created by and used for research need to be FAIR. Advancing the global Open Science movement and the development of the European Open Science Cloud is the unambiguous objective for this report. This document is both a report and an action plan for turning FAIR into reality. It offers...

Also, the Association of Research Libraries has just published an interesting collection of papers on radical collaboration for research data management. These are packaged as Research Library Issues 296, and can be downloaded (either individually or as a group) at

With best wishes for the Holidays.

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI