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FAIR adoption & literature

FAIR Principles paper citations

OpenAlex (Wilkinson 2016)

18K
citations · 2026-07-20
S-curve
best-fit model
18K
projected 2027
736.2K12K18K2016201820202022202420261234518K 2027
Logistic (S-curve) fitbest fit (AICc)N(t) = L / (1 + e^{−k(t − t₀)})
carrying capacity L 19Ksteepness k 0.798 / yrmidpoint t₀ 2022 0.9927forecast 18K by 2027

Forecast = 10% of the 11-yr record (1.1 yr ahead). Anchored on the latest value; levels off toward L ≈ 19K.

Timeline — what shaped the curve
  • 12016-03-15FAIR Principles paper — Wilkinson et al. published 'The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship' in Scientific Data, coining the FAIR acronym and seeding the citation curve.
  • 22016-09-05G20 Hangzhou endorses FAIR — The G20 Leaders' Communiqué from the Hangzhou Summit endorsed open science and access to publicly funded research on FAIR principles, lending the framework high-level political backing.
  • 32018-09-04Plan S / cOAlition S — National funders, backed by the European Commission and ERC, launched cOAlition S and Plan S to mandate immediate open access, amplifying funder-driven demand for FAIR data practices.
  • 42021-04-28Horizon Europe FAIR DMP — Regulation (EU) 2021/695 established Horizon Europe (2021-2027), making FAIR-compliant data management and a Data Management Plan a non-optional requirement for all funded projects.
  • 52023-01-25NIH DMS Policy — The NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy took effect, requiring DMS plans and deposit in trusted, FAIR-aligned repositories for all new NIH-funded research generating scientific data.

Cumulative citations of the FAIR Guiding Principles paper — the best single FAIR-adoption proxy.

SourceOpenAlex (Wilkinson 2016)
Update cadenceweekly
Live endpointhttps://api.openalex.org/works?filter=doi:10.1038/sdata.2016.18&select=id,cited_by_count,updated_date&mailto=chrmnch@icloud.com
Parsejson · results.0.cited_by_count
Datecitations
2026-07-2018,022
2026-07-1317,945
2026-07-0617,866
2026-06-2417,727
2025-01-0116,323
2024-01-0113,642
2023-01-0110,867
2022-01-018,071
2021-01-015,489
2020-01-013,466
2019-01-011,942
2018-01-01947
2017-01-01366
2016-01-0173

Machine-readable: /api/research-data?metric=fair-citations · back to all metrics

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