{"doi":"10.1186/s40249-021-00853-0","title":"Epidemiology and evolution of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, 2012–2020","abstract":"BACKGROUND: The ongoing transmission of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the Middle East and its expansion to other regions are raising concerns of a potential pandemic. An in-depth analysis about both population and molecular epidemiology of this pathogen is needed. METHODS: MERS cases reported globally as of June 2020 were collected mainly from World Health Organization official reports, supplemented by other reliable sources. Determinants for case fatality and spatial diffusion of MERS were assessed with Logistic regressions and Cox proportional hazard models, respectively. Phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses were performed to examine the evolution and migration history of MERS-CoV. RESULTS: A total of 2562 confirmed MERS cases with 150 case clusters were reported with a case fatality rate of 32.7% (95% CI: 30.9‒34.6%). Saudi Arabia accounted for 83.6% of the cases. Age of ≥ 65 years old, underlying conditions and ≥ 5 days delay in diagnosis were independent risk factors for death. However, a history of animal contact was associated with a higher risk (adjusted OR = 2.97, 95% CI: 1.10-7.98) among female cases < 65 years but with a lower risk (adjusted OR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.18-0.51) among male cases ≥ 65 years old. Diffusion of the disease was fastest from its origin in Saudi Arabia to the east, and was primarily driven by the transportation network. The most recent sub-clade C5.1 (since 2013) was associated with non-synonymous mutations and a higher mortality rate. Phylogeographic analyses pointed to Riyadh of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates as the hubs for both local and international spread of MERS-CoV. CONCLUSIONS: MERS-CoV remains primarily locally transmitted in the Middle East, with opportunistic exportation to other continents and a potential of causing transmission clusters of human cases. Animal contact is associated with a higher risk of death, but the association differs by age and sex. Transportation network is the leading driver for the spatial diffusion of the disease. These findings how this pathogen spread are helpful for targeting public health surveillance and interventions to control endemics and to prevent a potential pandemic.","journal":"Infectious Diseases of Poverty","year":2021,"id":153883,"datarank":1.9968672903706173,"base_score":4.204692619390966,"endowment":4.204692619390966,"self_citation_contribution":0.6307038929086449,"citation_network_contribution":1.3661633974619722,"self_endowment_contribution":0.6307038929086449,"citer_contribution":1.3661633974619722,"corpus_percentile":89.30919780304788,"corpus_rank":1383,"citation_count":66,"citer_count":52,"citers_with_citation_signal":43,"citers_with_endowment":43,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":true,"is_dataset_confidence":0.7775,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":6.25,"fair_percentile":25.068786303882604,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":252903,"name":"Wenqiang Shi","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":652256,"name":"Kun Liu","orcid":"0000-0002-7276-7935","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":250382,"name":"Xin‐Lou Li","orcid":"0000-0002-7743-0856","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":252900,"name":"Ming‐Jin Liu","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":652257,"name":"Wenhui Zhang","orcid":"0000-0002-5769-4942","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":250381,"name":"Guo-Ping Zhao","orcid":"0000-0003-2327-5325","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":626170,"name":"Jinjin Chen","orcid":"0009-0009-6967-1172","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":250384,"name":"Xiao‐Ai Zhang","orcid":"0000-0002-9505-1307","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":252899,"name":"Dong Miao","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":530773,"name":"Wei Ma","orcid":"0000-0002-8092-3280","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":239646,"name":"Wei Liu","orcid":"0000-0002-9302-8170","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":226413,"name":"Yang Yang","orcid":"0000-0003-0428-5480","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":250386,"name":"Li‐Qun Fang","orcid":"0000-0002-4981-1483","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":492142,"name":"Anran Zhang","orcid":"0000-0003-3103-9269","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":38,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:43:44.759273Z","pmid":"33964965","pmcid":"PMC8105704","fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":11.1111,"fair_a":6.25,"fair_i":0.0,"fair_r":12.5,"fair_zscore":-1.1162,"fair_rationale":{"fair_score":6.25,"has_llm":true,"taxonomy_version":"fair_taxonomy_v5","dimensions":{"F":{"name":"Findable","score":11.11,"criteria":[{"key":"f_dataset_pid","label":"Persistent identifier for the data","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper does not provide any persistent identifier for its own dataset.","anchors":["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'"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"f_repository_named","label":"Named repository","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper does not name a repository; it directs data requests to the author.","anchors":["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"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"f_data_availability_statement","label":"Data-availability statement","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":0.5,"verdict":"partial","evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","grounded":true,"rationale":"The data-availability statement points to the author, which is Colavizza category 1 (available on request).","anchors":["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"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"f_discovery_metadata","label":"Description of the dataset as an object","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":"We assembled three datasets: (1) a list of individual human cases worldwide with demographic, exposure and clinical information, (2) eco-geographic and socioeconomic characteristics (referred to as socioenvironmental variables hereinafter) at the appropriate administrative level in the Middle East (county for Saudi Arabia and province for the other countries), and (3) full-genome sequences of MERS-CoV worldwide.","grounded":false,"rationale":"The paper describes the datasets in running prose but does not provide an itemised inventory of files or variables. [downgraded to 'no' — no verifiable quote from the paper]","anchors":["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'"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"f_dataset_cited","label":"Dataset formally cited","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","grounded":true,"rationale":"No identifier for the dataset appears anywhere in the paper, including in the reference list or body text. [majority verdict 'no' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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'"],"scored":true,"signal":null}]},"A":{"name":"Accessible","score":6.25,"criteria":[{"key":"a_data_openly_accessible","label":"Access route free of preconditions","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","grounded":true,"rationale":"The only access route is a discretionary request to the author, which is not a followable or unconditional route.","anchors":["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'"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"a_access_conditions_stated","label":"Access level labelled","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper gives no explicit access-level label for the data; it only states that the data are available by contacting the author. [majority verdict 'no' (3/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"a_controlled_access_for_sensitive","label":"Gatekeeper for sensitive data","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.5,"verdict":"partial","evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","grounded":true,"rationale":"The data are human subject data, but the paper names the corresponding author as the gatekeeper, which is a natural person. [majority verdict 'partial' (3/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"a_timeline_retention","label":"Availability timing & retention","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"The paper does not state any timeline for data availability or retention period.","anchors":["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'"],"scored":false,"signal":null}]},"I":{"name":"Interoperable","score":0.0,"criteria":[{"key":"i_open_nonproprietary_format","label":"Open file format","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"No file format is named for the released data.","anchors":["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"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"i_community_standard_vocabulary","label":"Community standard / vocabulary","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"No data or metadata community standard is named for the study's own dataset.","anchors":["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'"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"i_qualified_references","label":"Identifiers for the resources the data depend on","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":"GenBank accession ID: NC_019843.3","grounded":false,"rationale":"The paper provides an identifier for a reference genome used in the analysis. [downgraded to 'no' — no verifiable quote from the paper]","anchors":["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'"],"scored":false,"signal":null}]},"R":{"name":"Reusable","score":12.5,"criteria":[{"key":"r_reuse_license","label":"Reuse licence","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"No licence for the data is named; the CC-BY licence applies to the article only. [majority verdict 'no' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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'"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"r_provenance_methods","label":"Provenance of the data","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"The data were assembled from existing sources; no specific instruments, kits, or software used to produce the dataset are named. [majority verdict 'no' (2/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"r_documentation_codebook","label":"Documentation / codebook","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":"A valid record of MERS case must include the basic demographic information (gender, age, reporting country, city of residence, being healthcare worker or not, baseline chronic conditions), dates of critical events (such as symptom onset, first hospitalization, laboratory confirmation), and exposure information (whether exposed to animal or its raw production, or exposed to confirmed MERS patients).","grounded":false,"rationale":"The variable definitions are provided inside the article in the methods section, not as a separate documentation object. [downgraded to 'no' — no verifiable quote from the paper]","anchors":["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"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"r_versioning","label":"Snapshot identified","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.5,"verdict":"partial","evidence":"MERS cases reported globally as of June 2020","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper provides a date (June 2020) as a snapshot reference for the data. [majority verdict 'partial' (3/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["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'"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"x_code_availability","label":"Analysis code available","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"No code availability is mentioned in the paper.","anchors":["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)"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"x_funding_attribution","label":"Funder and award number","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"R01 AI139761","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper provides specific grant numbers from the funders.","anchors":["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"],"scored":true,"signal":null}]}},"actions":[{"key":"f_dataset_pid","dimension":"F","label":"Persistent identifier for the data","action":"Mint or cite a persistent identifier for the dataset — a repository DOI or an accession from a registered repository — and print it in the paper. A bare URL is not persistent: it is the single most common cause of a dead data link five years after publication. For clinical / human-subjects data, deposit in dbGaP or the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA).","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","why":"The paper does not provide any persistent identifier for its own dataset.","gain":16.67,"priority":"essential","scored":true},{"key":"f_repository_named","dimension":"F","label":"Named repository","action":"Deposit the data in a repository registered in re3data/FAIRsharing (a domain repository such as GEO, SRA, dbGaP, PRIDE, or a generalist such as Zenodo, Dryad, Dataverse) and name it explicitly in the paper. A lab website is not an archive: it has no retention commitment and no accession. For clinical / human-subjects data, deposit in dbGaP or the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA).","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","why":"The paper does not name a repository; it directs data requests to the author.","gain":16.67,"priority":"essential","scored":true},{"key":"a_data_openly_accessible","dimension":"A","label":"Access route free of preconditions","action":"Remove the precondition or justify it. Release the data at publication with no embargo, no registration wall, and no approval step — NIH's zero-embargo public- access rule (NOT-OD-25-101) has already made 'available at publication' the federal baseline for the article; the data should not lag behind it. For clinical / human-subjects data, deposit in dbGaP or the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA).","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","why":"The only access route is a discretionary request to the author, which is not a followable or unconditional route.","gain":16.67,"priority":"essential","scored":true},{"key":"r_reuse_license","dimension":"R","label":"Reuse licence","action":"Attach a standard, machine-readable open licence to the deposit — CC0 or CC BY, which is what Horizon Europe and most funders expect — and print the licence identifier in the paper. 'Free to use' is not a licence: it grants nothing a reuser's institution can rely on.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"No licence for the data is named; the CC-BY licence applies to the article only. [majority verdict 'no' (4/5 passes agreed)]","gain":16.67,"priority":"essential","scored":true},{"key":"f_dataset_cited","dimension":"F","label":"Dataset formally cited","action":"Cite the dataset in the reference list like a publication — creator, year, title, repository, DOI/accession — and cite it in-text where it is used. Only a reference- list entry is machine-readable to Crossref/DataCite, and only a citation lets the data earn credit. Cite the clinical / human-subjects repository accession (e.g. from dbGaP or the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA)) in the reference list.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","why":"No identifier for the dataset appears anywhere in the paper, including in the reference list or body text. [majority verdict 'no' (4/5 passes agreed)]","gain":8.33,"priority":"important","scored":true},{"key":"i_open_nonproprietary_format","dimension":"I","label":"Open file format","action":"Release the data in an open, community-standard format (CSV/TSV, JSON, HDF5, NetCDF, FASTQ, VCF, NIfTI…) instead of — or alongside — any proprietary or instrument-native format, and name the format in the paper. A dataset that needs a €2,000 licence to open is not reusable.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"No file format is named for the released data.","gain":8.33,"priority":"important","scored":true},{"key":"x_code_availability","dimension":"R","label":"Analysis code available","action":"Publish the analysis code in a public forge, archive a tagged release with a DOI (Zenodo/Software Heritage), and cite that DOI in the paper. NIH DMS Element 2 asks for the tools and code, not only the data — and 'available on request' is not a locator. Archive the analysis code in a versioned repository (GitHub + a Zenodo release DOI).","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"No code availability is mentioned in the paper.","gain":8.33,"priority":"important","scored":true},{"key":"r_versioning","dimension":"R","label":"Snapshot identified","action":"Version the deposit and cite the exact version analysed (a version-specific DOI, or an accession with its version suffix). A reader reproducing your work against 'the current release' is reproducing it against a different dataset.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"partial","current":0.5,"evidence":"MERS cases reported globally as of June 2020","why":"The paper provides a date (June 2020) as a snapshot reference for the data. [majority verdict 'partial' (3/5 passes agreed)]","gain":2.08,"priority":"useful","scored":true},{"key":"f_data_availability_statement","dimension":"F","label":"Data-availability statement","action":"Replace the statement with the repository template: name the repository and give the accession or DOI (Colavizza category 3). This is the only DAS class associated with a measured citation advantage; 'available on reasonable request' and 'within the article' are not.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"partial","current":0.5,"evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","why":"The data-availability statement points to the author, which is Colavizza category 1 (available on request).","gain":0.0,"priority":"essential","scored":false},{"key":"f_discovery_metadata","dimension":"F","label":"Description of the dataset as an object","action":"Add a 'Data Records' section: itemise every file in the deposit and every variable or sample it holds, with counts and units. Describe the dataset as an object in its own right, not as a by-product of the findings — this is what makes it discoverable to someone who is not looking for your paper.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":"We assembled three datasets: (1) a list of individual human cases worldwide with demographic, exposure and clinical information, (2) eco-geographic and socioeconomic characteristics (referred to as socioenvironmental variables hereinafter) at the appropriate administrative level in the Middle East (county for Saudi Arabia and province for the other countries), and (3) full-genome sequences of MERS-CoV worldwide.","why":"The paper describes the datasets in running prose but does not provide an itemised inventory of files or variables. [downgraded to 'no' — no verifiable quote from the paper]","gain":0.0,"priority":"essential","scored":false},{"key":"a_access_conditions_stated","dimension":"A","label":"Access level labelled","action":"State the access level in words, using the standard vocabulary: 'These data are open access' / 'These data are controlled access'. A reader — and a harvester — should not have to infer the access level from the presence of a download link.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","why":"The paper gives no explicit access-level label for the data; it only states that the data are available by contacting the author. [majority verdict 'no' (3/5 passes agreed)]","gain":0.0,"priority":"important","scored":false},{"key":"i_community_standard_vocabulary","dimension":"I","label":"Community standard / vocabulary","action":"Adopt and NAME your domain's data standard — the minimum-information checklist, metadata schema, or ontology your community uses (MIAME/MINSEQE, ISA-Tab, BIDS, an OBO ontology, HL7 FHIR/OMOP) — and say which one you followed. A reporting checklist standardises your paper; it does nothing for your data. In clinical / human-subjects, describe the data with OMOP CDM, CDISC SDTM or HL7 FHIR.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"No data or metadata community standard is named for the study's own dataset.","gain":0.0,"priority":"important","scored":false},{"key":"r_provenance_methods","dimension":"R","label":"Provenance of the data","action":"Name the instruments, kits, and software — with versions — that produced the data, not just the verbs. 'Reads were aligned' is not provenance; 'aligned with STAR v2.7.9a to GRCh38' is, because someone else can rerun it.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"The data were assembled from existing sources; no specific instruments, kits, or software used to produce the dataset are named. [majority verdict 'no' (2/5 passes agreed)]","gain":0.0,"priority":"important","scored":false},{"key":"r_documentation_codebook","dimension":"R","label":"Documentation / codebook","action":"Ship a README and a data dictionary IN the deposit — every file, every variable, its units, its allowed values, its missing-value codes. It is the cheapest single thing that makes a dataset usable by someone who was not in the lab, and a table buried in the article does not travel with the data.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":"A valid record of MERS case must include the basic demographic information (gender, age, reporting country, city of residence, being healthcare worker or not, baseline chronic conditions), dates of critical events (such as symptom onset, first hospitalization, laboratory confirmation), and exposure information (whether exposed to animal or its raw production, or exposed to confirmed MERS patients).","why":"The variable definitions are provided inside the article in the methods section, not as a separate documentation object. [downgraded to 'no' — no verifiable quote from the paper]","gain":0.0,"priority":"important","scored":false},{"key":"a_controlled_access_for_sensitive","dimension":"A","label":"Gatekeeper for sensitive data","action":"Route sensitive data through an institutional gatekeeper — deposit in a controlled- access repository (dbGaP, EGA) with a Data Access Committee and a published DUA — rather than through the corresponding author's inbox. An author-gated dataset dies with the author's email address, and 'on reasonable request' has been shown repeatedly not to yield data. For sensitive/human clinical / human-subjects data, use a controlled-access repository such as dbGaP or EGA.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"partial","current":0.5,"evidence":"Please contact author for data requests.","why":"The data are human subject data, but the paper names the corresponding author as the gatekeeper, which is a natural person. [majority verdict 'partial' (3/5 passes agreed)]","gain":0.0,"priority":"useful","scored":false},{"key":"i_qualified_references","dimension":"I","label":"Identifiers for the resources the data depend on","action":"Cite by identifier every resource the data depend on — the source datasets' accessions, the reference build (GRCh38 / GCA_000001405.28), the cohort application number, the code DOI — and register those relations on the dataset record (IsDerivedFrom, IsSupplementTo). A name is not a link: it cannot be resolved, versioned, or followed by a machine.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":"GenBank accession ID: NC_019843.3","why":"The paper provides an identifier for a reference genome used in the analysis. [downgraded to 'no' — no verifiable quote from the paper]","gain":0.0,"priority":"useful","scored":false},{"key":"a_timeline_retention","dimension":"A","label":"Availability timing & retention","action":"State when the data become available AND how long they will be retained — cite the repository's preservation policy. NIH DMS Element 4 asks for both; most papers give neither.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"The paper does not state any timeline for data availability or retention period.","gain":0.0,"priority":"useful","scored":false}],"suggestions":["Mint or cite a persistent identifier for the dataset — a repository DOI or an accession from a registered repository — and print it in the paper. A bare URL is not persistent: it is the single most common cause of a dead data link five years after publication. For clinical / human-subjects data, deposit in dbGaP or the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA).","Deposit the data in a repository registered in re3data/FAIRsharing (a domain repository such as GEO, SRA, dbGaP, PRIDE, or a generalist such as Zenodo, Dryad, Dataverse) and name it explicitly in the paper. A lab website is not an archive: it has no retention commitment and no accession. For clinical / human-subjects data, deposit in dbGaP or the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA).","Remove the precondition or justify it. Release the data at publication with no embargo, no registration wall, and no approval step — NIH's zero-embargo public- access rule (NOT-OD-25-101) has already made 'available at publication' the federal baseline for the article; the data should not lag behind it. For clinical / human-subjects data, deposit in dbGaP or the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA).","Attach a standard, machine-readable open licence to the deposit — CC0 or CC BY, which is what Horizon Europe and most funders expect — and print the licence identifier in the paper. 'Free to use' is not a licence: it grants nothing a reuser's institution can rely on.","Cite the dataset in the reference list like a publication — creator, year, title, repository, DOI/accession — and cite it in-text where it is used. Only a reference- list entry is machine-readable to Crossref/DataCite, and only a citation lets the data earn credit. Cite the clinical / human-subjects repository accession (e.g. from dbGaP or the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA)) in the reference list."],"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash","agent_version":"fair_agent_v8","fulltext_source":"unpaywall_pdf"},"fair_model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash","fair_agent_version":"fair_agent_v8","fair_fulltext_source":"unpaywall_pdf","fair_has_llm":true,"fair_computed_at":"2026-07-20T11:13:39.240580Z","clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}