Citation: Poljak Bili´ c, L.; Posavec, K. FAIRness of Research Data in the European Humanities Landscape. Publications 2024, 12, 6. https:// doi.org/10.3390/publications12010006 Academic Editors: Iva Grabari´ c Andonovski, Nikolina Peša Pavlovi´ c and Jadranka Stojanovski Received: 1 December 2023 Revised: 17 February 2024 Accepted: 29 February 2024 Published: 5 March 2024 Copyright: © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). publications Article FAIRness of Research Data in the European Humanities Landscape Ljiljana Poljak Bili´ c 1,2, * and Kristina Posavec 3 1 Department of Information Sciences, University of Zadar, 23 000 Zadar, Croatia 2 University of Split Library, University of Split, 21 000 Split, Croatia 3 Data Management Department, University of Zagreb University Computing Centre SRCE, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia; kristina.posavec@srce.hr * Correspondence: lpoljak@unizd.hr Abstract: This paper explores the landscape of research data in the humanities in the European context, delving into their diversity and the challenges of defining and sharing them. It investigates three aspects: the types of data in the humanities, their representation in repositories, and their alignment with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). By reviewing datasets in repositories, this research determines the dominant data types, their openness, licensing, and compliance with the FAIR principles. This research provides important insight into the heterogeneous nature of humanities data, their representation in the repository, and their alignment with FAIR principles, highlighting the need for improved accessibility and reusability to improve the overall quality and utility of humanities research data. Keywords: datasets; humanities; FAIR; repositories; openness; licencing; research data 1. Introduction Research data play a crucial role in the development of the scientific communication landscape since sharing and reusing data are considered key activities in the transition to open science at the European level. Research data in the humanities are the most diverse of all scientific disciplines because almost any data on human activity can be considered research data, including newspapers, photographs, diaries, church records, court files, etc. [1]. Given the confusion surrounding the definition of data, Borgman believes that it is more relevant to question when something becomes data rather than what data are, because it “usually involves the process by which a scientist recognises that an observation, object, record, or other entity can be used as evidence of phenomena, and then collects, acquires, presents, analyses, and interprets these entities as data” [2]. Data sharing is essential in enabling the transparency, validation, and reproducibility of the research process, and further discovery based on reused data [3]. Therefore, it is possible to say that “the value of data lies in their use” [2]. To enable reuse, data must be shared in a way that is primarily FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), which ensures their finding, availability, interoperability, and reuse. The FAIR principles provide guidelines for the publication of digital resources in a way that makes them findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, and describe a continuum of characteristics, attributes, and behaviours that will bring digital resources closer to this goal [4]. The aim of this paper is to examine and answer three research questions related to datasets in the field of humanities: what types of research data are represented in the humanities? (1), to what extent are datasets in repositories in the field of the humanities represented by openness and under what licence? (2), and to what extent do research data align with the FAIR principles? (3). In the literature, there is still no consensus on the definition of research data in the humanities, so they are often used as a broad term that includes different types of research Publications 2024, 12, 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications12010006 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/publications