Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ To be FAIR: Theory Specification Needs an Update

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

"Methods for specifying, sharing, and iteratively improving theories remain underdeveloped," write the authors. "To address these limitations, we introduce *FAIR theory*: A standard for specifying theories as Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable information artifacts." The paper as a whole is quite interesting, though I find its discussion of what counts as a theory to be a bit shallow (though they later assert that the definition of FAIR does not prescribe what it is to be a theory). What it does require, though, is that theories be presented as part of a modular approach to publishing. Generally, theories are just written in (variable) text descriptions in the body of a paper. Instead, "a FAIR theory object can be connected to a specific paper which might serve as the theory's documentation and canonical reference by using 'relationType: IsDescribedBy', while the reverse relationship, documented in the canonical reference paper, is 'relationType: Describes'." Via DigitalKoans. See also: Octopus.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Apr 17, 2025 01:43 a.m.

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