Metadata are the descriptions and data that provide information about one or more aspects of a dataset, providing information about data which can increase interoperability and accessibility. For open data, having strong metadata is crucial for enabling replicability and collaboration in scientific research. Below are several resources for understanding metadata particularly in the context of open data:
General
- Organization/Format: DataONE Education Modules
Link: https://www.dataone.org/education-modules
Contains: Lessons on all phases of the research lifecycle involving data. For specific best practices on metadata, see Lesson 7: Metadata.
- Organization/Format: ESIP Data Management Clearinghouse
Link: http://commons.esipfed.org/node/726
Contains: Module titled "Creating Documentation and Metadata: Creating a Citation for Your Data."
- Organization/Format: Research Data Alliance - Metadata Standards Directory Working Group
Link: http://rd-alliance.github.io/metadata-directory/
Contains: A community-maintained directory for metadata standards in scientific data.
- Organization/Format: United States Geological Survey (USGS) Data Management Training Modules
Link: https://www1.usgs.gov/csas/training/dm-module1/
Used for: A training module titled "Metadata for Research Data."
Domain-Specific
Multi-disciplinary
- Organization/Format: Digital Curation Centre Disciplinary Metadata Registry
Link: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/metadata-standards
Used for: Links to information about disciplinary data standards for biology, earth science, physical science, social science & humanities, and general research data including profiles, tools for implementation, and repository use cases.
Astronomy and Planetary Sciences
- Organization/Format: International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA)
Link: Technical Specifications: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/metadata-standards/international-virtual-observatory-alliance-technical-specifications
Link: Image Specifications: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FITS
Used for: The field of astronomy to enable interoperability between and the integration of astronomical archives across the world into an international virtual observatory.
- Organization/Format: Planetary Data System (PDS) from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Link: https://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/datastandards/about/
Used for: The field of astronomy and planetary sciences for any research projects involving planetary data.
Biology
- Organization/Format: Access to Biological Collections Data (ABCD) Data Exchange Standard
Link: https://github.com/tdwg/abcd
Used for: The international network BioCASe for linking biological collections data from natural history museums, botanical/zoological gardens and research institutions.
- Organization/Format: Darwin Core
Link: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/
Used for: Facilitating the sharing of information about biological diversity by providing identifiers, labels, and definitions. Darwin Core is primarily based on taxa, their occurrence in nature as documented by observations, specimens, samples, and related information.
Ecology
- Organization/Format: Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB): Ecological Metadata Language (EML)
Link: https://knb.ecoinformatics.org/tools/morpho
Used for: The field of ecology using the downloadable metadata editor tool Morpho for creating an Ecological Metadata Language (EML) for datasets.
Geosciences
Geodesy
- Organization/Format: Receiver Independent Exchange Format (RINEX)
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RINEX
Used for: The field of geodesy as a data interchange format for raw satellite navigation system data.
Geography and Earth Sciences
- Organization/Format: United States Geological Survey (USGS) Online Metadata Editor
Link: https://www1.usgs.gov/csas/ome/
Used for: The field of geography and earth sciences; the Online Metadata Editor asks the user questions about their dataset and produces a metadata record in the standard of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata.
Seismology
- Organization/Format: Federated Digital Seismic Networks
Link: Exchange format example: https://ds.iris.edu/ds/nodes/dmc/data/formats/
Link: Data centers supporting FDSN web services: https://www.fdsn.org/webservices/datacenters/
Used for: The field of seismology for seismological time series data and related metadata, using data formats of SAC, SEED (Standard for the Exchange of Earthquake Data), MiniSEED, Dataless SEED, ASCII, and GeoCSV .