Functional tissue units in the Human Reference Atlas is a dataset published in Nature Communications (2025). On theSindex it has a DataRank of 0.538, placing it in the top 36.2% of the data-sharing corpus. It has been cited 19 times, with 12 citing works in its 1-hop citation network. Its calibrated FAIR score is 75/100.
Ranks in the top 36% for downstream scientific impact
DataRank reads this dataset's downstream impact straight off the citation graph — no black box, no proprietary weighting. How is this computed?
FAIR checklist signals are shown for context only and do not affect DataRank scoring.
Full FAIR picture · advisory
The headline score is computed from the scored criteria — the fact-shaped checks (a repository, an accession, a licence) that two independent models agree on. The advisory criteria below are real FAIR guidance but rest on judgment calls that models read differently, so they inform without moving the number.
“The supplementary data can be found on Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11477238”
The paper gives a DOI (10.5281/zenodo.11477238) for the supplementary data, which is a persistent identifier. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]
RDA-F1-01D — FAIR Data Maturity Model: 'Data is identified by a persistent identifier' (priorit · RDA-F1-02D — FAIR Data Maturity Model: 'Data is identified by a globally unique identifier' · FsF-F1-02D — F-UJI/FAIRsFAIR: 'Data is assigned a persistent identifier'
“The supplementary data can be found on Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11477238”
Zenodo is named as a repository that holds the supplementary data; Zenodo is a recognised data repository.
RDA-F4-01M — FAIR Data Maturity Model: metadata is offered so it can be harvested and indexed ( · NIH DMS Policy Element 4 (NOT-OD-21-014) — name the repository where data will be archived · NSTC Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories (2022) — 'Long-Term Sustainability', 'Reten
“The supplementary data can be found on Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11477238”
The dataset's identifier (DOI) appears only in the body text (Data availability section), not as a reference-list entry.
FORCE11 Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles (2014) — data should be cited as a first- · RDA-F3-01M — metadata clearly and explicitly includes the identifier of the data it describes · FsF-F3-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata includes the identifier of the data it describes'
Advisory · not in the published score
“All data is freely available via the HRA Portal at https://humanatlas.io and the GitHub repository at https://github.com/cns-iu/hra-ftu-vccf-supporting-information. The supplementary data can be found on Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11477238 and on GitHub at https://github.com/cns-iu/hra-ftu-vccf-supporting-information/tree/main/data.”— not found in the paper; verdict downgraded
The statement points at a repository record (Zenodo DOI) and names repositories, fitting Colavizza category 3. [downgraded to 'partial' — no verifiable quote from the paper] [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]
Colavizza, Hrynaszkiewicz, Staden, Whitaker & McGillivray (2020), 'The citation advantage of li · Springer Nature research data policy — Data Availability Statements: standard statement templat · RDA-F3-01M — metadata clearly and explicitly includes the identifier of the data it describes
“Table 1 | Functional tissue units by organ, with Uberon ID, and dimensions (length where applicable and diameter in millimeters) as listed in the provided references”
The paper includes an itemised inventory (Table 1) that lists the FTUs, their identifiers, and dimensions, serving as a structured description of the dataset.
RDA-F2-01M — 'Rich metadata is provided to allow discovery' (priority Essential) · FsF-F2-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata includes descriptive core elements to support data findability' · FsF-R1-01MD — F-UJI: 'Metadata specifies the content of the data'
“All data is freely available via the HRA Portal at https://humanatlas.io and the GitHub repository at https://github.com/cns-iu/hra-ftu-vccf-supporting-information.”
The text gives a route to the data with no stated precondition; the data are stated to be freely available now.
RDA-A1.1-01D — 'Data is accessible through a free access protocol' · FsF-A1-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata contains access level and access conditions of the data' · NSTC Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories (2022) — 'Free and Easy Access'
Advisory · not in the published score
“All data is freely available via the HRA Portal at https://humanatlas.io and the GitHub repository at https://github.com/cns-iu/hra-ftu-vccf-supporting-information.”
The paper explicitly labels the data as 'freely available', which is a natural-language synonym for 'open access'.
FsF-A1-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata contains access level and access conditions of the data' · RDA-A1-01M — metadata contains information to enable the user to get access to the data · COAR Controlled Vocabularies — Access Rights v1.0 (open / embargoed / restricted / metadata-onl
The data are not sensitive or human-subject data; the paper does not name any gatekeeper of either kind.
NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy (NOT-OD-14-124) — controlled-access via a Data Access Committee · RDA-A1.2-01D — 'Data is accessible through an access protocol that supports authentication and · NIH DMS Policy Element 5 (NOT-OD-21-014) — Access, Distribution, or Reuse Considerations (conse
“All data is freely available via the HRA Portal at https://humanatlas.io and the GitHub repository at https://github.com/cns-iu/hra-ftu-vccf-supporting-information.”
The paper states when the data become available (now) but does not state how long they persist.
NIH DMS Plan Element 4 (NOT-OD-21-014) — Data Preservation, Access, and Associated Timelines · NSTC Desirable Characteristics (2022), Organizational Infrastructure: 'Retention Policy' · RDA-A2-01M — 'Metadata is guaranteed to remain available after data is no longer available'
“The illustrations are saved in SVG, PNG, and AI format.”
The paper names SVG and PNG, which are open, non-proprietary formats. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]
FsF-R1.3-02D — F-UJI: 'Data is available in a file format recommended by the target research co · RDA-R1.3-02D — data is expressed in a machine-understandable community standard · RDA-I1-01D — data uses a knowledge representation expressed in a standardised format
Advisory · not in the published score
“All anatomy terms are mapped to the multi-species Uber-anatomy Ontology (Uberon) and cells are mapped to Cell Ontology”
The paper explicitly names Uberon and Cell Ontology, which are community standards registered in FAIRsharing.
RDA-R1.3-01M — 'Metadata complies with a community standard' (priority Essential) · RDA-R1.3-01D — 'Data complies with a community standard' · RDA-I2-01M — '(Meta)data use vocabularies that follow FAIR principles'
“Kidney Nephron UBERON:0001285”
The paper uses Uberon IDs (e.g., UBERON:0001285) as identifiers for external ontology resources that the data are mapped to. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]
RDA-I3-01M — '(meta)data include references to other (meta)data' · RDA-I3-03M — 'metadata includes qualified references to other metadata' · FsF-I3-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata includes links between the data and its related entities'
No licence is named for the data; the article's CC-BY 4.0 licence applies to the article, not the dataset.
RDA-R1.1-01M — 'Metadata includes information about the licence under which the data can be reu · RDA-R1.1-02M — 'Metadata refers to a standard reuse licence' · RDA-R1.1-03M — 'Metadata refers to a machine-understandable reuse licence'
“The 6th release of the HRA v2.0 covers 22 FTUs distributed across 10 different organs, see Table1.”
The paper identifies the snapshot using a version token ('6th release of the HRA v2.0').
DataCite Metadata Schema 4.6 — the 'Version' property · RDA-R1.2-01M — provenance information (which version was used is provenance) · NSTC Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories (2022) — 'Provenance', 'Retention Policy'
“All code is freely available at https://github.com/cns-iu/hra-ftu-vccf-supporting-information and a snapshot of the code was published on Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11477238.”— not found in the paper; verdict downgraded
The paper gives machine-resolvable locators (GitHub URL and Zenodo DOI) for the study's own code. [downgraded to 'partial' — no verifiable quote from the paper] [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]
NIH DMS Policy Element 2 (NOT-OD-21-014) — 'Related Tools, Software and/or Code' · FAIR4RS Principles v1.0 (Chue Hong et al., 2022; RDA/FORCE11/ReSA) — FAIR Principles for Resear · FORCE11 Software Citation Principles (Smith, Katz & Niemeyer, 2016, PeerJ CS 2:e86)
“This research has been funded by the NIH Common Fund through the Office of Strategic Coordination/Office of the NIH Director under awards OT2OD033756 and OT2OD026671”
The paper provides specific award numbers (e.g., OT2OD033756) attached to named funders.
DataCite Metadata Schema 4.6 — 'FundingReference' property (funderName, funderIdentifier, award · Crossref Funder Registry — canonical funder identifiers for funding metadata · RDA-F2-01M — rich metadata provided to allow discovery (funding is part of the descriptive reco
Advisory · not in the published score
“HRA FTUs and experimental data visualizations were developed using an eight-step process: (1) consult the Anatomical Structure, Cell Types, and Biomarker (ASCT+B) tables to identify the anatomical structures and cell types present in an FTU; (2) identify FTU shape, dimensions, and cell types from experimental data on FTU geometries published in scholarly papers and histological visualizations; (3) a professional medical illustrator creates an initial pencil drawing of the FTU at the cellular level; (4) organ experts with extensive expertise in human anatomy and single-cell studies comment on the FTU properties and initial drawing; (5) a professional medical illustrator creates a vector-based drawing of the FTU guided by a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) entitled "Creating 2D Reference Illustrations for FTU" and the "Style Guide for Human Reference Atlas 2D Functional Tissue Unit (FTU) Illustrations"; (6) organ experts review the drawings, metadata, and any existing disclaimers and suggest changes as needed which are implemented; (7) a crosswalk file is compiled that associates elements (anatomical structures and cell types) in the FTU vector file to their counterparts in the Anatomical Structures, Cell Types, and Biomarkers (ASCT+B) tables using the SOP titled "Authoring Crosswalk Tables Between Functional Tissue Unit (FTU) Illustrations and ASCT+B Tables"; and (8) the number of cells per cell type are recorded and the FTU 2D files is published with all metadata and the crosswalk via the HRA Portal as part of an HRA release.”— not found in the paper; verdict downgraded
The production process is described in generic terms without naming specific instruments, kits, or software versions for data generation. [downgraded to 'no' — no verifiable quote from the paper] [majority verdict 'no' (3/5 passes agreed)]
RDA-R1.2-01M — 'Metadata includes provenance information according to community- specific standa · FsF-R1.2-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata includes provenance information about data creation or generati · W3C PROV-O (W3C Recommendation, 2013) — the entity/activity/agent model of provenance
“together with a crosswalk file which maps the anatomy to the multispecies Uberon anatomy ontology and cell types to the Cell Ontology”— not found in the paper; verdict downgraded
The paper states that a crosswalk file accompanies the data, which serves as a documentation object defining the mappings. [downgraded to 'partial' — no verifiable quote from the paper] [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]
RDA-R1-01M — '(Meta)data are richly described with a plurality of accurate and relevant attribu · FsF-R1-01MD — F-UJI: 'Metadata specifies the content of the data' · NIH DMS Policy Element 3 (NOT-OD-21-014) — Standards (documentation and metadata to accompany t
Calibrated FAIR score — a parallel quality metric, independent of the DataRank citation score. See the full evaluation →
Base Score Contribution
0.449
From this paper's citation signal
Citation Network Contribution
0.0884
From 7 citing papers with measurable signal
Ranked by each citer's contribution to N(p) — log1p(Cq) divided by its reference count — out of 12 citers.
NIDDK NIH HHS
Grant: U24 DK135157
NIDDK NIH HHS
Grant: U2C DK114886
NIH HHS
Grant: OT2 OD033756
NCI NIH HHS
Grant: U24 CA268108
NIH HHS
Grant: OT2 OD026671
NIDDK NIH HHS
Grant: U01 DK133090
FWCI
5.32
Citation Percentile
1.0%
Citation Trend
Fields of Study
MeSH Terms
Keywords
Sustainable Development Goals