What is a Dataset?

Contents

Definition

A FAIR dataset consists of the following entities:

A single catalogue entry describing the dataset at the instance-level that is compliant with the DCAT standard.
Zero or more dictionary entries describing the dataset at the field-level. This can include:
- field name (mandatory)
- field label (mandatory)
- field type (optional)
- description of the field (optional)
Zero or more controlled vocabularies per dictionary
Zero or more attachments that will enhance the metadata of the dataset such as PDFs, JSON, etc.
An optional Data Access Request (DAR) workflow (for DAR-enabled customers only) A dataset in FAIR Data Services is therefore defined as a single entry in the FAIR service aligned to a single dataset catalogue, i.e. a dataset is equivalent to one dataset catalogue including its attachments and associated data dictionaries.

Dataset Display

Below is an example of how a dataset is displayed in FAIR.

Catalogue

Catalogue information is displayed at the top with dataset title, description, keywords and other supported metadata fields. More fields will be supported in subsequent releases however the supported fields are currently:

Author
Contact email
Publisher
License
Version
DOI
Rights
Created On and Last Updated data is automatically generated by the service. Note that the catalogue information is compliant with the W3C Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) standard. A machine-readable version (JSON) of the catalogue can be downloaded by selecting ‘Download' then ‘Catalogue’ from the actions ribbon. Similarly, a machine-readable version of the entire dataset can be downloaded by selecting ‘Download’ then ‘All Metadata’ in the actions ribbon.

Dictionary

Dictionary information where datasets with multiple dictionaries (e.g. multiple tables in a database) can be navigated between using the inline dictionary dropdown menu. A machine-readable version (JSON) of the dictionary can be downloaded by selecting ‘Download' then ‘Dictionary’ from the actions ribbon. Similarly, a machine-readable version of the entire dataset can be downloaded by selecting ‘Download’ then ‘All Metadata’ in the actions ribbon.

Controlled Vocabulary

A controlled vocabulary can be set and viewed per field outlining the restrictions of values a particular field can take. For example, a ‘patient_sex’ field may only take the values of ‘M', ‘F’ or 'NA’ describing male, female or unknown sex patients.