{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,28]],"date-time":"2026-02-28T04:29:43Z","timestamp":1772252983882,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,4,11]],"date-time":"2020-04-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1586563200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Publications"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Data science is facing the following major challenges: (1) developing scalable cross-disciplinary capabilities, (2) dealing with the increasing data volumes and their inherent complexity, (3) building tools that help to build trust, (4) creating mechanisms to efficiently operate in the domain of scientific assertions, (5) turning data into actionable knowledge units and (6) promoting data interoperability. As a way to overcome these challenges, we further develop the proposals by early Internet pioneers for Digital Objects as encapsulations of data and metadata made accessible by persistent identifiers. In the past decade, this concept was revisited by various groups within the Research Data Alliance and put in the context of the FAIR Guiding Principles for findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable data. The basic components of a FAIR Digital Object (FDO) as a self-contained, typed, machine-actionable data package are explained. A survey of use cases has indicated the growing interest of research communities in FDO solutions. We conclude that the FDO concept has the potential to act as the interoperable federative core of a hyperinfrastructure initiative such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/publications8020021","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,4,13]],"date-time":"2020-04-13T04:45:31Z","timestamp":1586753131000},"page":"21","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":85,"title":["FAIR Digital Objects for Science: From Data Pieces to Actionable Knowledge Units"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1187-8076","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Koenraad","family":"De Smedt","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen, P.O Box 7800, 5020 Bergen, Norway"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4842-6487","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dimitris","family":"Koureas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"International Biodiversity Infrastructures, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands"}]},{"given":"Peter","family":"Wittenburg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Max Planck Computing and Data Facility, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Gie\u00dfenbachstra\u00dfe 2, 85748 Garching, Germany"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,4,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1059","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.22634","article-title":"The conundrum of sharing research data","volume":"63","author":"Borgman","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Koureas, D., Arvanitidis, C., Belbin, L., Berendsohn, W., Damgaard, C., Groom, Q., G\u00fcntsch, A., Hagedorn, G., Hardisty, A., and Hobern, D. (2016). Community engagement: The \u2018last mile\u2019 challenge for European research e-infrastructures. Res. Ideas Outcomes, 2.","DOI":"10.3897\/rio.2.e9933"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"160018","DOI":"10.1038\/sdata.2016.18","article-title":"The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship","volume":"3","author":"Wilkinson","year":"2016","journal-title":"Sci. Data"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"62","DOI":"10.1016\/j.shpsc.2015.10.003","article-title":"On the nature of cross-disciplinary integration: A philosophical framework","volume":"56","author":"Crowley","year":"2016","journal-title":"Stud. Hist. Philos. Sci. Part C Stud. Hist. Philos. Biol. Biomed. Sci."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"48","DOI":"10.1016\/j.shpsc.2015.10.009","article-title":"Is it possible to give scientific solutions to Grand Challenges? On the idea of grand challenges for life science research","volume":"56","author":"Efstathiou","year":"2016","journal-title":"Stud. Hist. Philos. Sci. Part C Stud. Hist. Philos. Biol. Biomed. Sci."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2215","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.23329","article-title":"Growth rates of modern science: A bibliometric analysis based on the number of publications and cited references","volume":"66","author":"Bornmann","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2","DOI":"10.5334\/dsj-2015-002","article-title":"The Challenges of Data Quality and Data Quality Assessment in the Big Data Era","volume":"14","author":"Cai","year":"2015","journal-title":"Data Sci. J."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"Borgman, C.L. (2014). Data, Data, Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink, Springer. Available online: https:\/\/works.bepress.com\/borgman\/322\/."},{"key":"ref_9","first-page":"1","article-title":"Interdisciplinarity patterns of highly-cited papers: A cross-disciplinary analysis","volume":"51","author":"Chen","year":"2014","journal-title":"Proc. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"684","DOI":"10.1038\/nature18315","article-title":"Interdisciplinary research has consistently lower funding success","volume":"534","author":"Bromham","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1162\/dint_a_00002","article-title":"FAIR science for social machines: Let\u2019s share metadata Knowlets in the Internet of FAIR data and services","volume":"1","author":"Mons","year":"2019","journal-title":"Data Intell."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Lannom, L. (2020, March 01). Digital Object Architecture Primer. Digital Objects- from RDA Results towards Implementation. RDA Side Meeting, Philadelphia. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/GEDE-RDA-Europe\/GEDE\/blob\/master\/Digital-Objects\/DO-Workshops\/Workshop-Philadelphia-2019\/lannom-do-p13.pdf."},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Wittenburg, P., Strawn, G., Mons, B., Bonino, L., and Schultes, E. (2019). Digital Objects as Drivers towards Convergence in Data Infrastructures, EUDAT."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Kahn, R., and Wilensky, R. (1995). A Framework for Distributed Digital Object Services, CNRI. Available online: https:\/\/www.cnri.reston.va.us\/k-w.html."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"115","DOI":"10.1007\/s00799-005-0128-x","article-title":"A framework for distributed digital object services","volume":"6","author":"Kahn","year":"2006","journal-title":"Int. J. Digit. Libr."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"599","DOI":"10.1016\/j.future.2011.08.004","article-title":"Why linked data is not enough for scientists","volume":"29","author":"Bechhofer","year":"2013","journal-title":"Future Gener. Comput. Syst."},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Wittenburg, P. (2020, March 01). Moving Forward on Data Infrastructure Technology Convergence: GEDE Workshop, Paris, 28\u201329 October 2019; Paris, France, 2019. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/GEDE-RDA-Europe\/GEDE\/tree\/master\/FAIR%20Digital%20Objects\/Paris-FDO-workshop."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Berg-Cross, G., Ritz, R., and Wittenburg, P. (2016). RDA DFT Core Terms and Model, EUDAT. Available online: http:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/11304\/5d760a3e-991d-11e5-9bb4-2b0aad496318."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Schultes, E., and Wittenburg, P. (2019). FAIR Principles and Digital Objects: Accelerating Convergence on a Data Infrastructure, EUDAT.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-23584-0_1"},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"Hodson, S., Collins, S., Genova, F., Harrower, N., Jones, S., Laaksonen, L., Mietchen, D., Petrauskait\u00e9, R., and Wittenburg, P. (2018). Turning FAIR into reality: Final Report and Action Plan from the European Commission Expert Group on FAIR Data, European Union."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Strawn, G. (2019). Open Science, Business Analytics, and FAIR Digital Objects, EUDAT.","DOI":"10.1109\/COMPSAC.2019.10283"},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"Bonino, L. (2020, March 01). Internet of FAIR Data and Services: Center of the Hourglass. Moving Forward on Data Infrastructure Technology Convergence: GEDE Workshop, Paris, 28\u201329 October 2019; Paris, France, 2019. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/GEDE-RDA-Europe\/GEDE\/blob\/master\/FAIR%20Digital%20Objects\/Paris-FDO-workshop\/GEDE_Paris_Session%201_Bonino.pptx."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"De Smedt, K., Koureas, D., and Wittenburg, P. (2019). An Analysis of Scientific Practice towards FAIR Digital Objects, EUDAT."},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"Van Uytvanck, D. (2020, March 01). Digital Objects\u2013Towards Implementation: The CLARIN Use Cases. Digital Objects\u2013 from RDA Results towards Implementation: RDA Side Meeting, Philadelphia, 2019. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/GEDE-RDA-Europe\/GEDE\/blob\/master\/Digital-Objects\/DO-Workshops\/Workshop-Philadelphia-2019\/uytvanck-do-p13.pdf."},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"Weigel, T. (2020, March 01). DO Management for Climate Data Infrastructure Support. Moving Forward on Data Infrastructure Technology Convergence: GEDE Workshop, Paris, French, 28\u201329 October 2019. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/GEDE-RDA-Europe\/GEDE\/blob\/master\/FAIR%20Digital%20Objects\/Paris-FDO-workshop\/GEDE_Paris_Session%202_Weigel.pptx."},{"key":"ref_26","first-page":"e37502","article-title":"DiSSCo as a New Regional Model for Scientific Collections in Europe","volume":"3","author":"Addink","year":"2019","journal-title":"Biodivers. Inf. Sci. Stand."},{"key":"ref_27","first-page":"e37505","article-title":"Collections Digitization and Assessment Dashboard, a Tool for Supporting Informed Decisions","volume":"3","author":"Casino","year":"2019","journal-title":"Biodivers. Inf. Sci. Stand."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"122","DOI":"10.1162\/dint_a_00034","article-title":"FAIR Data and Services in Biodiversity Science and Geoscience","volume":"2","author":"Lannom","year":"2020","journal-title":"Data Intell."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"(2020, March 01). Digital Object Roadmap Document (V 3.0); 2019. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/GEDE-RDA-Europe\/GEDE\/blob\/master\/Digital-Objects\/Foundation-Documents\/DORoadmap.pdf."}],"container-title":["Publications"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6775\/8\/2\/21\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,13]],"date-time":"2025-10-13T13:20:59Z","timestamp":1760361659000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6775\/8\/2\/21"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,4,11]]},"references-count":29,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,6]]}},"alternative-id":["publications8020021"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/publications8020021","relation":{"has-preprint":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.20944\/preprints202003.0073.v1","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["2304-6775"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2304-6775","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,4,11]]}}}