Could the FAIR principles have enhanced Rosalind Franklin’s legacy?
By Saanvi Jiteendra
Let me take you back in time to the 1950s when scientists across the world were racing to uncover the truth behind our genetic material, DNA. Famously, the scientists who won this race were Watson and Crick. They developed a model of DNA stating that it is a double helix composed of two opposite strands, joined together by hydrogen bonds. However, these specifics would not have been possible without another great scientist, and her work with X-ray Crystallography, Rosalind Franklin. Through her images of DNA, Franklin determined that DNA is a double helix, and calculated its diameter, distance between the strands, and their angles. When Watson visited his friend’s lab at King’s College, he saw Franklin’s report with her results and realised the true structure of DNA. It is a known fact that Watson and Crick relied on Franklin’s data to create their model.
So why am I telling you all of this? Did Watson and Crick steal Franklin’s data? While it is obvious Watson and Crick were unprofessional when taking Franklin’s data and should have sought her permission, her report was not confidential [4]. However, could this have been avoided with more standardised practices we have today regarding data sharing? Yes! Today scientists are encouraged to openly and FAIRly share their data. With the FAIR principles, scientists can ethically obtain someone’s data and work from it to create new data. [2] FAIR stands for findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability. FAIR data should be easily machine-readable, as most researchers use computers to analyse their data. This is why, EVERYTHING, including metadata (information about the data), should be included.
To abide by the FAIR principles, researchers are recommended to put their data in a trusted repository [3] such as Harvard Dataverse (dataverse.harvard.edu), Uniprot (www.uniprot.org), and wwwPDB (www.rcsb.org) to name a few. They should ensure that their data and metadata have a unique persistent identifier (ex. DOI), which allow their data to be findable [1]. It should be stated how users can access a researcher’s data, sometimes with an authentication and authorisation procedure. Data should use a widely accepted file format so it can interoperate with different applications and workflows for analysis. Finally, metadata and data should be assigned a licence and clearly described so they can be replicated by others.
Had the FAIR principles existed in the 1950s, maybe Franklin would have been aware of the significant impact her data had in developing the model of DNA. FAIR principles require a license and crediting of data sources which are good data management practices, so Watson and Crick would have been compelled to credit Franklin. Adherence to FAIR enables scientists to easily see where data can be reused through inclusion of clear licensing. Research institutes would have also had strict data sharing policies that would have had to be implemented to allow ethical sharing of data.
Situations like these in the past, are the reason why the FAIR principles were created, so that we can learn from others’ mistakes. Often an important discovery is made through the contribution of many people. Abiding by the FAIR principles ensures that every contributor can be acknowledged, and data is shared ethically. I am sure Rosalind Franklin, and many other scientists who haven’t been acknowledged in the past for their discoveries would be grateful for the progress we have made in the scientific community. It is important that we all, especially new scientists, start abiding by the FAIR principles at a college and university level, so we won’t have to learn these principles at a later stage.
About the Author
Hi! My name is Saanvi Jiteendra, I am a PSDI intern and a 3rd year Bsc. Biochemistry student at the University of Southampton. My role at PSDI is Scientific Communications and Engagement, as part of my time here, I am creating content (like this article) to help explain what PSDI does and promote our engagement on social media.
Works Cited (Vancouver)
1. The Open University Library. FAIR Principles in under 60 seconds [Internet]. YouTube. The Open University Library; 2023 [cited 2024 Aug 1]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFFRtP6h_KQ&ab_channel=TheOpenUniversityLibrary
2. GO FAIR. FAIR Principles – GO FAIR [Internet]. GO FAIR. GO FAIR; 2017 [cited 2024 Aug 1]. Available from: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/
3. Wilkinson MD, Dumontier M, Aalbersberg IjJ, Appleton G, Axton M, Baak A, et al. The FAIR Guiding Principles for Scientific Data Management and Stewardship. Scientific Data [Internet]. 2016 Mar 15 [cited 2024 Aug 1];3(1). Available from: https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201618
4. Cobb M. Sexism in science: did Watson and Crick really steal Rosalind Franklin’s data? [Internet]. The Guardian. Guardian News & Media Limited; 2018 [cited 2024 Aug 1]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/23/sexism-in-science-did-watson-and-crick-really-steal-rosalind-franklins-data