FORUM-MD TG Data Quality and FAIR Practices in Metrology (FORUM-MD-TG-DQ&FPM)

Terms of reference

The terms of reference for the FORUM-MD TG Data Quality and FAIR Practices in Metrology (version 1.0, approved on February 21, 2025) are the following:

Membership: 

• Representatives and individual scientists from NMIs members/observers/liaisons of FORUM-MD.
• Individual scientists from NMI that are not members/observers/liaisons which expertise coincides with term of references of the TG/WG.
• Guests can be invited by the chair on a one-off basis.

Chairpersons:

The WG chairpersons are appointed by the Chair of the FORUM-MD, with the agreement of the FORUM-MD.

The mandate of the chairpersons is 2 years.

Area:

The Data Quality and FAIR Practices in Metrology (DQ&FPM) Task Group will focus on the combination of characterization of data quality and the implementation of the FAIR principles¹ in a metrology context. Although the FAIR principles themselves do not explicitly address data quality assessment, in the context of metrology—where data characterization and measurement uncertainties are essential attributes—it makes sense to consider these two aspects together. There are common larger activities such as landscaping and surveying on data quality and FAIR practice that would be beneficial to be conducted together and by a group of a critical mass of forum members.

Highly developed data governance communities and standards exist across a range of sectors, reflecting the diverse and specialized requirements of these communities. However, these standards and frameworks differ in the way they manage the metrological aspects of data, and may not take full advantage of the systems, knowledge and norms of the International Metrology, Quality, Traceability and Uncertainty systems. An agreed framework for Data Quality from the viewpoint of Metrology will be a critical aspect of the FAIR and semantically sound use of data-objects: enabling a broader community of users to seamlessly communicate the data quality between different domains to allow a clear determination of fitness-for-purpose when collaboration is required to tackle cross-domain challenges. A critical first step will be the identification and gap/commonality analysis of existing frameworks and then examining the potential for terminology harmonization and an agreed set of metrics to assess levels of quality.

The FAIR principles – that data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable—apply broadly to measurement results and research outputs including data, software, digital certificates/reports, and services. FAIRness helps to assure reproducibility and transparency of research, aspects that are fundamental to the practice of metrology. Improving the FAIRness of metrology research and measurement results could streamline key comparisons, and inclusion of metrology-community-wide metadata standards (particularly with the inclusion of units in agreed representation systems) would help expose and increase the value of metrology outputs to the broadest possible community. The DQ&FPM TG will examine several aspects of practices in metrology and make recommendations to NMIs and DIs on steps they can take to clearly characterize data quality by making maximum use of the FAIR principles.

Activities:

• Assess the existing FAIR and DQ landscape in science and technology to identify gaps and to prioritize the scope and identify the requirements that are relevant for metrology and its stakeholders.
• Bring to light existing practices and develop a roadmap for making metrology outputs and measurement services as FAIR as possible.
• Bring to light existing practices and develop a roadmap for documenting data quality for metrological outputs.Develop DQ reporting guidelines and framework concerning measurement data, meeting FAIR principles, and facilitating the “fitness-for-purpose” assessment of data and digital objects for diverse user communities.
• Engage with NMIs, DIs and liaisons through the Forum-MD to help them to improve data quality and FAIRness in their economies (mission).

¹ Wilkinson, M., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, I. et al. The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Sci Data 3,160018 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18