Investigating the FAIRness of Science and Technology Open Data: A Focus in the Scandinavian Countries

Providing researchers and other users access to data can accelerate knowledge discovery and enhance research transparency and reliability. In this context, the FAIR vision was formulated with the goal to optimize data sharing and reuse by humans and machines. In this paper, we investigate Scandinavian open data portals using FAIR data principles. We review and analyze the current state of datasets categorized as “Science and Technology” since in our view, such data is particularly relevant for reusability. Additionally, this study aims to further highlight and understand any specific challenges related to suitability of scientific data according to FAIR principles. Our findings highlight that, while the possibilities of open data from the science and technology domain are very promising, there are still a plethora of challenges we’ve discovered, and that need to be tackled in order to truly leverage the benefits.