Plan data management with sharing and re-use in mind
Include data sharing in your project planning and data management plan from the outset.
Use sustainable and interoperable file formats
Ensure data accessibility by using open, widely used and machine-readable file formats that can be opened with standard or open software.
Researchdata.se provides a list (link below) of criteria for file formats suitable for accessibility and long-term preservation, as well as a list of suggested formats for text, spreadsheets, audio, video, etc.
Think about what information will be needed to understand and re-use the data
Maintain rich documentation of the data (metadata) at project, dataset and variable level to facilitate for yourself and others to understand, verify and re-use data now and in the future. Identify what other outputs might be needed to verify or reproduce data, such as code, scripts, protocols and questionnaires.
Use common standards and vocabularies when structuring, annotating and describing data
When possible, follow widely accepted standards, vocabularies and community practices established in your field of research. This will help make data and metadata unambiguous and interoperable for both humans and computers.
Publish in a trusted data repository
Publish data and documentation, including related outputs, with clear terms for reuse in a FAIR-supporting data repository that provides a persistent identifier and provisions for security, long-term preservation etc. For legal or ethical reasons, it may not always be possible to publish data openly. In this case, the FAIR way is to still publish a description of the dataset (i.e. metadata) so that it can be discovered, but with restricted access and information about how or where data may be requested.
The Swedish National Data Service (SND), of which SLU is a member, offers a data repository that supports the FAIR principles to a high degree. Using SND it is also possible to publish data with restricted access.