UK Biobank: An Open Access Resource for Identifying the Causes of a Wide Range of Complex Diseases of Middle and Old Age is a dataset published in PLOS Medicine (2015). On theSindex it has a DataRank of 12.8, placing it in the top 0.5% of the data-sharing corpus. It has been cited 13,532 times, with 100 citing works in its 1-hop citation network. Its calibrated FAIR score is 31/100.
Ranks in the top 1% 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.
“UK Biobank’s publicly available Data Showcase ( http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/ )”
The only identifier given for the dataset is a URL, which is not a persistent identifier scheme. [majority verdict 'partial' (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'
“UK Biobank is available for open access, without the need for collaboration, to any bona fide researcher who wishes to use it to conduct health-related research for the benefit of the public.”
The paper names UK Biobank as the holder of the data, which is a named host but not a repository listed in re3data/FAIRsharing. [majority verdict 'partial' (3/5 passes agreed)]
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
“UK Biobank’s publicly available Data Showcase ( http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/ )”
The dataset's identifier (URL) appears only in the body text, not in the reference list. [majority verdict 'partial' (3/5 passes agreed)]
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
“UK Biobank’s publicly available Data Showcase ( http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/ ) presents the univariate distributions and methods used for collection of all the variables available for health-related research, enabling potential research users to explore what data are available and plan research applications.”
The data availability statement points to a website (Data Showcase) rather than a repository record with an accession or DOI. [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 2 Data collected at the baseline assessment.”
The paper provides itemised inventories of the dataset in tables, which qualify as a structural text object. [majority verdict 'yes' (3/5 passes agreed)]
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'
“Applications for data only are approved so long as the proposed research is in the public interest and the data required are, or will become, available.”
The paper specifies a precondition (application and approval) for access, making it a followable process with a defined condition. [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]
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
“UK Biobank is available for open access, without the need for collaboration, to any bona fide researcher who wishes to use it to conduct health-related research for the benefit of the public.”
The paper explicitly labels the data as 'open access' in the title and abstract, which is a standard access-level label. [majority verdict 'yes' (3/5 passes agreed)]
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
“Following initial assessment by the executive team, all applications are assessed and either approved or rejected (with right of appeal) by an independent Access Subcommittee.”
The paper names an institutional gatekeeper (Access Subcommittee) for the sensitive human-subject data. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]
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
The paper does not state a persistence commitment or availability timing for its own data. [majority verdict 'no' (3/5 passes agreed)]
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 paper does not name a format for its own data.
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
“Death registrations ICD-coded cause specific mortality”
The paper uses ICD (International Classification of Diseases) as a standard vocabulary for health outcomes. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]
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'
The paper does not provide identifiers for external resources that its own data depend on.
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'
The paper does not attach a license to its own data. [majority verdict 'no' (3/5 passes agreed)]
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 paper does not provide a version token or date for its own data.
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'
The paper does not mention any code written for this study.
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)
“UK Biobank has received funding from the UK Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Department of Health, British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK, Northwest Regional Development Agency, Scottish Government, and Welsh Assembly Government.”
The paper names funders but does not provide award numbers.
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
The paper does not describe how its own data were produced. [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
The paper does not provide a documentation object for its own data. [majority verdict 'no' (2/5 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
1.4
From this paper's citation signal
Citation Network Contribution
11.4
From 100 citing papers with measurable signal
Ranked by each citer's contribution to N(p) — log1p(Cq) divided by its reference count — out of 100 citers.
Wellcome Trust
Grant: 093707
Medical Research Council
Grant: MR/K006525/1
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
Grant: NF-SI-0512-10165
Medical Research Council
Grant: MC_U137686860
Medical Research Council
Grant: MR/K02700X/1
Medical Research Council
Grant: MR/L016265/1
British Heart Foundation
Grant: RG/08/014/24067
Cancer Research UK
Grant: 16491
Medical Research Council
Grant: MR/K007017/1
Medical Research Council
Grant: MR/L003120/1
Medical Research Council
Grant: MR/L01341X/1
British Heart Foundation
Grant: SP/13/2/30111
Wellcome Trust
Grant: unidentified
unidentified
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
Chief Scientist Office
Department of Health
Chief Scientist Office
FWCI
186.17
Citation Percentile
1.0%
Citation Trend
Fields of Study
MeSH Terms
Keywords
Sustainable Development Goals