Open and FAIR: Trends in scientific publishing and the implications for official statistics

Abstract

The FAIR data principles have emerged as a major focus in the world of scientific research data, but have not had as large an impact on official statistics. While there are good reasons for this, FAIR developments within the research community may be of interest to official statistical organizations. These include the increased availability of research data, improvements in the area of machine-actionable metadata, and a focus on provenance information which could lead to increased transparency and data quality. Some activities of interest are described as a starting point for those in official statistics who may wish to follow these developments.