FAIR Software Checklist

Are you a developer, author, creator or owner of research software? Use this self-assessment tool to check your work’s findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (FAIR) and receive a badge indicating its FAIRness.

As an author of research software, you want others to see and build on your work. This is so research can move faster, and it’s central to research integrity that your work is available. A good way of achieving this is to follow the FAIR Principles for findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability.

Developed by the ARDC and the Netherlands eScience Center, this self-assessment tool can help you assess your software’s FAIRness through 15 multiple-choice questions. On answering all the questions, you’ll receive a FAIR indicator and a badge that’s linked to the assessment. We encourage you to attach the badge to your software to promote the idea of FAIR and as an indication to users of your software of how you have applied the FAIR principles.

FAIR Software Checklist

Answer 15 questions to assess your software’s FAIRness and receive a badge.

Use the tool now

This tool was created based on the FAIR Principles for Research Software. These principles were produced with input from over 500 participants in a joint working group comprising the Research Data Alliance (RDA), FORCE11 and Research Software Alliance (ReSA). The principles were endorsed and formally recommended by the RDA in May 2022.