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GO FAIR Implementation Network 

The Chemistry community needs to create a FAIR culture which is supported by standards and infrastructure development promoting machine readability of chemical data and other digital resources. Hence, the Chemistry Implementation Network (ChIN) commits to the following guiding principles:

– Effecting a change in culture around FAIR data stewardship and data sharing practice
– Findable chemistry data
– Reusable code and data – validation, compilation/aggregation, incorporation into future work, data mining
– The use of standards at source and throughout the information lifecycle
– Availability and accessibility of tools and infrastructure
– The use of persistent identifiers and machine readability at the core
– Management and oversight of standards
– Use of general data standards outside of chemistry where appropriate and FAIR in their implementation
– Enable and promote use of chemical data standards in other disciplines that work with chemical data

The ChIN operates in tandem with the Chemistry Research Data Interest Group (CRDIG) of the Research Data Alliance.

Main purpose and objectives
The ChIN will draw from the three GO FAIR pillars of GO CHANGE and GO BUILD and GO TRAIN. The goals of this Implementation Network are:

– To enhance the open, FAIR and effective communication of chemical knowledge within the chemical sciences and between chemistry and other disciplines
– To enable chemists and chemistry to contribute to the achievement of the UN Global Sustainable Development goals.

Deliverables (elements of the Internet of FAIR Data and Services (IFDS)):

  1. Management structure for Chemistry FAIR standards that integrates with IUPAC structure and mechanisms
  2. FAIRsharing resource with chemistry-centric personas
  3. Maps and Gaps analyses
  4. Sets of aggregated standards
  5. Development of Chemistry FAIR data tools and resources, and professional FAIR Data Stewardship training mechanisms.

Main tasks
Phase 1: Creating a GO FAIR Chemistry culture

  1. Establish a ChIN working group focussing on implementation and community engagement, which works in tandem with CRDIG and the IUPAC Colour Book project
  2. Collaborative ChIN-CRDIG promotion through stakeholders
  3. Create a group of recognised chemistry leaders who will champion GO FAIR in the sub-disciplines by example
  4. Develop a map of existing GO FAIR Chemistry resources, bodies, approaches and ensure these are curated by the FAIRsharing organisation
  5. Create a clear Chemistry GO FAIR web/digital/social media presence in order to make GO FAIR Chemistry more digestible by chemists.
  6. Identify gaps (based on coverage from above) and recommend priorities.

Phase 2: Building Chemistry standards and infrastructure

  1. Management: Establish a clear management structure and process for Chemistry FAIR standards through IUPAC, that will serve to highlight to the wider chemistry community the ongoing relevance of IUPAC in the digital world and create a definitive single point of chemical reference
  2. Development: Add impetus to, and an audience for, the IUPAC Cheminformatics Colour Book project to aggregate current standards. Collaborate on a GAP analysis, addressing gaps where possible in the short term, establishing a programme for those gaps that need more work, e.g.
    – Chemical structure representation / structure normalization (file formats and identifiers e.g. mol/InChI)
    – Representations/descriptors of molecular structure in ambiguous/unknown/complicated situations
    – Encoding of representations into standardised formats
    – Chemical semantics e.g. the IUPAC recommended terms being repurposed as an ontology, CHEMINF, RXNO, RXNO, CAO
    – Chemical representation standards
  3. Tools: Identify tools (ala ELN) or services (e.g. format converters, structure to picture) to manipulate data/information and interface to repository (pre “publication”, for publication and post-publication)
  4. Resources: Undertake an analysis of the data repository needs in chemistry and suggest a sustainable pathway forward
  5. Workflows: Establish agreement on workflows for stakeholders that support FAIR management of chemical data across the information life-cycle.

Manifesto
Dowload the Manifesto of ChIN here

ChIN representatives
Simon Coles
Stuart Chalk
Jeremy Frey
Egon Willighagen

Contact
Simon Coles S.J.Coles@soton.ac.uk

Partners