The "I" in FAIR: Translating from Interoperability in Principle to Interoperation in Practice

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Morris, Evan, Vaidya, Gaurav, Owen, Phil, Reilly, Jason, Fecho, Karamarie, Wang, Patrick, Kebede, Yaphet, Carter, E. Kathleen, Bizon, Chris
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Morris, Evan
Vaidya, Gaurav
Owen, Phil
Reilly, Jason
Fecho, Karamarie
Wang, Patrick
Kebede, Yaphet
Carter, E. Kathleen
Bizon, Chris
author_facet Morris, Evan
Vaidya, Gaurav
Owen, Phil
Reilly, Jason
Fecho, Karamarie
Wang, Patrick
Kebede, Yaphet
Carter, E. Kathleen
Bizon, Chris
contents The FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles [1] promote the interoperability of scientific data by encouraging the use of persistent identifiers, standardized vocabularies, and formal metadata structures. Many resources are created using vocabularies that are FAIR-compliant and well-annotated, yet the collective ecosystem of these resources often fails to interoperate effectively in practice. This continued challenge is mainly due to variation in identifier schemas and data models used in these resources. We have created two tools to bridge the chasm between interoperability in principle and interoperation in practice. Babel solves the problem of multiple identifier schemes by producing a curated set of identifier mappings to create cliques of equivalent identifiers that are exposed through high-performance APIs. ORION solves the problems of multiple data models by ingesting knowledge bases and transforming them into a common, community-managed data model. Here, we describe Babel and ORION and demonstrate their ability to support data interoperation. A library of fully interoperable knowledge bases created through the application of Babel and ORION is available for download and use at https://robokop.renci.org.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_10008
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The "I" in FAIR: Translating from Interoperability in Principle to Interoperation in Practice
Morris, Evan
Vaidya, Gaurav
Owen, Phil
Reilly, Jason
Fecho, Karamarie
Wang, Patrick
Kebede, Yaphet
Carter, E. Kathleen
Bizon, Chris
Databases
The FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles [1] promote the interoperability of scientific data by encouraging the use of persistent identifiers, standardized vocabularies, and formal metadata structures. Many resources are created using vocabularies that are FAIR-compliant and well-annotated, yet the collective ecosystem of these resources often fails to interoperate effectively in practice. This continued challenge is mainly due to variation in identifier schemas and data models used in these resources. We have created two tools to bridge the chasm between interoperability in principle and interoperation in practice. Babel solves the problem of multiple identifier schemes by producing a curated set of identifier mappings to create cliques of equivalent identifiers that are exposed through high-performance APIs. ORION solves the problems of multiple data models by ingesting knowledge bases and transforming them into a common, community-managed data model. Here, we describe Babel and ORION and demonstrate their ability to support data interoperation. A library of fully interoperable knowledge bases created through the application of Babel and ORION is available for download and use at https://robokop.renci.org.
title The "I" in FAIR: Translating from Interoperability in Principle to Interoperation in Practice
topic Databases
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10008