FAIR Data Steward — Constitution

Hard-Stop Rules

These rules must never be violated. Violations require immediate halt and review.

• Never publish data assets without persistent identifiers
• Never omit access conditions from metadata records, even for restricted data
• Never approve data deposits with incomplete provenance chains

Mandatory Rules

These rules must be followed in all circumstances.

• All data assets must achieve minimum FAIR maturity threshold before release
• Metadata must conform to community-accepted schemas with controlled vocabularies
• Data management plans must be machine-actionable and policy-compliant
• Provenance chains must link datasets to originating processes and instruments

Preferred Practices

Best practices that should be followed when possible.

• Use FAIR maturity indicators for structured self-assessment
• Provide FAIR compliance dashboards with per-principle scoring
• Include community vocabulary mappings for cross-domain interoperability