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Findability is only the first step in adhering to the FAIR principles of making scientific data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. After all, even if data can be found, if it can’t be accessed, it can’t be used.
The Accessibility principle of FAIR focuses on ensuring that once data has been located, people and machines can retrieve it and the metadata that describes it, in a secure, standards-based manner.
For labs, it doesn’t mean opening the doors to all data. It’s about balancing openness and control, allowing authorized users to access what they need while keeping sensitive information secure and compliant.
GO FAIR advises that accessibility is based on two underlying principles, the first of which is defined further by two additional principles:
Not all data can be public, however. Because privacy, intellectual property, and regulatory rules often apply, the FAIR principles aim to make data as open as possible, but as restricted as necessary.
A laboratory information management system (LIMS) is a powerful tool for making data accessible. Providing centralized data storage, a LIMS platform can help labs reduce silos by consolidating information in a single source of truth. Built-in role-based permissions also enable a LIMS to provide fine-grained access control, so that the right people can retrieve the right data.
Audit trails within a LIMS allow lab operators to track who accessed what and when. This is critical for lab accountability and labs required to comply with regulations. Some LIMS also keep key metadata visible even when access to the underlying dataset is restricted to meet security and privacy standards. Each of these features helps labs meet the FAIR goal of secure, controlled accessibility inside the organization.
Traditional LIMS platforms often focus on internal workflows, so they may fall short on helping labs meet FAIR’s broader requirements. Many rely on proprietary or local access protocols rather than widely adopted, open standards, such as RESTful APIs with common authentication.
Another challenge for labs using a traditional LIMS is that data is frequently locked behind firewalls, which makes the data invisible to collaborators outside the organization. Furthermore, long-term access may be lost if data is archived or migrated to new systems.
In summary, while a traditional LIMS can easily make lab data accessible internally, data may not always meet the FAIR guidelines of being discoverable and retrievable across systems and over time.
To achieve fully FAIR-compliant accessibility, labs often need to pair their traditional LIMS with:
A layered approach can help labs protect sensitive data while also keeping the data discoverable and retrievable for authorized use. For labs that do not have staff skilled in these areas, an external consultant with the right domain knowledge can help with re-evaluating current solutions and bridging any gaps.
Alternatively, labs could use a modern informatics platform that is designed to support secure, FAIR-compliant access. Labbit, for instance, is built on FAIR data principles, providing more comprehensive FAIR coverage so labs can innovate and collaborate more easily, and future-proof their business.
Accessibility in FAIR is about enabling secure, standards-based retrieval of both data and metadata. A traditional LIMS provides a foundation for FAIR data with centralization, permissions, and audit trails, but should be supplemented with open protocols and repositories to meet FAIR’s full vision. On the other hand, labs that use a modern informatics platform built on FAIR data principles can be confident their data meets all the FAIR principles without needing to implement additional APIs, repositories, or catalogs.
In the next post in this series, we’ll dive into the “I” in FAIR — Interoperability — and explore how shared standards, formats, and vocabularies help data flow smoothly between systems.
Contact us to discuss how you can make your lab data FAIR.
