Metadata is the information that describes and documents research data. Metadata will make your datasets searchable in an archive or repository, easily located from a citation, and easily understood by people who might want to use your data.
Types of Metadata
| Metadata Type | Example Properties | Primary |
|
Descriptive metadata Common fields which help users to discover online sources through searching and browsing |
Title Author Subject Genre Publication date |
Discovery Display Interoperability |
|
Technical metadata Fields which describe the information required to access the data |
File type File size Creation date/time Compression scheme |
Interoperability Digital object management Preservation |
|
Administrative Metadata – Preservation Fields that facilitate the management of resources |
Checksum Preservation event |
Interoperability Digital object management Preservation |
|
Administrative Metadata – Rights Fields which deal with intellectual property rights |
Copyright status License terms Rights holder |
Interoperability Digital object management |
|
Structural metadata Fields which describe how different components of a set of associated data relate to one another |
Sequence Place in hierarchy |
Navigation |
|
Markup languages Languages which integrate metadata and flags for other structural or semantic features within content |
Paragraph Heading List Name Date |
Navigation Interoperability |
Metadata Format
Metadata standards may vary from discipline to discipline. Dublin Core is one of the most commonly-used generic metadata standards.
| · Title | · Identifier | · Publisher |
| · Subject | · Type | · Relation |
| · Format | · Description | · Creator |
| · Date | · Language | · Contributor |
| · Source | · Rights | · Coverage |
Metadata Standard
Metadata Concept Map by Amanda Tarbet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
* Note: Geospatial Interoperability Framework discontinued.
General: Dublin Core | MODS
Social Science: DDI
Humanities: TEI | VRA
Sciences: Darwin Core | ITIS | EML | DIF | SEED | FGDC | ISO 19115 | GIF
README File
A README file is a plain text file that includes descriptive information used commonly for software, games, and code. When working with data, it can be useful to create and include a README file with your data. Here are some best practices in creating comprehensive README files.
- Create a separate README file for each individual data file or a single README file for the dataset as a whole
- Write your README document as a plain text file
- Name your README file as “readme.xxx”
Here are some recommended contents for the README files of your research data. The table is adapted from Guide to writing “readme” style metadata, Cornell University Research Data Management Service Group
| General information |
|
| Data and file overview |
|
| Sharing and access information |
|
| Methodological information |
|
Sources:
