FAIRsFAIR is inviting digital repositories and associated organisations to endorse the TRUST Principles for digital repositories. The TRUST Principles, developed within the RDA Community and recently published in the Nature Research journal Scientific Data, offer guidance for maintaining the trustworthiness of digital repositories, especially those responsible for the stewardship of research data.
| Principle | Guidance for Repositories |
| Transparency | To be transparent about specific repository services and data holdings that are verifiable by publicly accessible evidence. |
| Responsibility | To be responsible for ensuring the authenticity and integrity of data holdings and for the reliability and persistence of its service. |
| User Focus | To ensure that the data management norms and expectations of target user communities are met. |
| Sustainability | To sustain services and preserve data holdings for the long-term. |
| Technology | To provide infrastructure and capabilities to support secure, persistent, and reliable services |
The concept of the TRUST Principles was initiated within discussions among RDA members and formally launched as a community discussion during the RDA 13th Plenary session, “RDA/WDS Certification of Digital Repositories: Build TRUST to be FAIR - Emerging Needs of Certification in Life Sciences, Geosciences and Humanities”, which was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA on 4 April 2019.
The collaborative exploration of the issues by RDA community members representing diverse disciplines is what has led to the publication of the publication of the paper on 14 May 2020.
The TRUST Principles have already been endorsed by organisations committed to the stewardship of digital resouces and research data in particular. FAIRsFAIR warmly invites digital repositories and other organisations to follow suit.
To read the article, identify the co-signatories and endorse the TRUST Principles visit https://www.rd-alliance.org/trust-principles-rda-community-effort
Source: Lin et al., 2020. The TRUST Principles for Digital Repositories. Scientific Data
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0486-7