Metadata IG

The Metadata IG will concern itself with all aspects of metadata for research data.  In particular, it will attempt to coordinate the efforts of the WGs concerned with metadata to produce a coherent approach to metadata covering metadata modalities of description, restriction, navigation, provenance, preservation and the use of metadata for the purposes discovery, contextualisation, validation, analytical processing, simulation, visualisation and interoperation.  It will also liaise with the other WGs especially Data Foundation and Terminology, PIDs, Standardisation of data categories and codes and Data Citation.  This IG activity relates to data management policies and plans of research organisations and researchers, and to policies and standards of research funders and of research communities which may or may not be official standards.

The metadata IG will organise itself through online meetings and face-to-face meetings of members of the IG present at RDA Plenary events.  It is proposed that – while membership is open to any RDA registered member – key members will be the leaders of the WGs concerned with metadata.  

Metadata Principles – Created and endorsed by all the RDA metadata groups

1. The only difference between metadata and data is the mode of use
2. Metadata is not just for data, it is also for users, software services, computing resources
3. Metadata is not just for description and discovery; it is also for contextualisation (relevance, quality, restrictions (rights, costs)) and for coupling users, software, and computing resources to data (to provide a  VRE)
4. Metadata must be machine-understandable as well as human-understandable for autonomicity (formalism)
5. Management (meta)data is also relevant (research proposal, funding, project information, research outputs, outcomes, impact…)

More

Current Activities

Previous Activities

The Metadata IG session at the RDA Plenary 21 during International Data Week in Salzburg, Structuring Semantic Information with Respect to Conventional Metadata (Syntactic) Structures, will be held during Breakout 1 on Monday, October 23, 2023. MIG is also contributing to the Building Collaborative Bridges: Fostering Collaborations within RDA session in Breakout 2 on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, the Let’s talk about FAIR mappings! Towards common practices for sharing mappings and crosswalks BoF in Breakout 4 on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, and the Introducing the reestablished Reproducibility IG session in Breakout 5 on Thursday, October 26, 2023.

Metadata Element Set:

The metadata groups intend to recommend the following metadata element set. Please note that each element needs ‘unpacking’ to get to something recognizable and actionable by a computer. The comments from reviewers are listed for each element. The folder for all elements is here.

As noted above, these are elements, not single-valued attributes.  Most will have internal syntax (structure) and use of terms that require declared semantics. Also it is not exhaustive; it is expected that particular subject domains will have much greater lists of elements.  This list is intended to be the recommend list of elements that should be provided by all within RDA to

1. permit discovery,
2. support contextualisation (assessment of relevance and value) and
3. facilitate action (interoperation including query and integration).

Use Case Analysis:

The initial use case Analysis was presented in Session 9 joint meeting of all the metadata groups at Plenary 6 in Paris. Below are some revised slides based on the feedback from that meeting and the master use case spreadsheet showing the process.

• Updated analysis slides
• Master Use Case Spreadsheet

Metadata Standards Catalog:

The RDA Metadata Standards Catalog Working Group supports an open directory of metadata standards applicable to scientific data that is both human-readable and machine-readable using an API. Additions or updates to the directory can be made here.  

Adoption: Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration

Metadata Standards Directory:

The RDA Metadata Standards Directory Working Group supports a collaborative, open directory of metadata standards applicable to scientific data. Additions or updates to the directory can now be made using the Metadata Standards Catalog.  

Adoption Story: Improving the Copernicus Climate Data Store metadata scheme with the RDA metadata standards repository

Adoption Story: The Ethnic and Migrant Minorities’ (EMMs’) Survey Registry: A tool to help make EMM survey data FAIR

FAIR guiding principles published in Nature journal

The FAIR Principles address these needs by providing a precise and measurable set of qualities a good data publication should exhibit – qualities that ensure that the data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship have been published.

Past Plenaries

• 2023-10-23 – 2023-10-26 RDA Plenary 21 Salzburg
• 2023-03-21 – 2023-03-23 RDA Plenary 20 Goteborg
• 2021-11-03 – 2021-11-11 RDA Plenary 18 Virtual
• 2021-04-20 – 2021-04-23 RDA Plenary 17 Edinburgh (Virtual)
• 2020-11-09 – 2020-11-12 RDA Plenary 16 Costa Rica (Virtual)
• 2019-10-23 – 2019-10-25 RDA Plenary 14 Helsinki
• 2019-04-02 – 2019-04-04 RDA Plenary 13 Philadelphia
• 2018-11-05 – 2018-11-08 RDA Plenary 12 Gabarone
• 2018-03-19 – 2018-03-21 RDA Plenary 11 Berlin
• 2017-09-19 – 2017-09-21 RDA Plenary 10 Montreal
• 2017-04-05 – 2017-04-07 RDA Plenary 9 Barcelona
• 2016-09-15 – 2016-09-17 RDA Plenary 8 Denver
• 2016-03–01 – 2016-03-03 RDA Plenary 7 Tokyo
• 2015-09-23 – 2015-09-25 RDA Plenary 6 Paris
• 2015-08-03- 2015-11-03 RDA Plenary 5 San Diego
• 2014-09-22 – 2014-09-24  RDA Plenary 4 Amsterdam
• 2014-03-26 – 2014-03-28  RDA Plenary 3 Dublin
• 2014-02-24 – 2014-02-25 RDA Europe Munich Meeting