UGent Open Science. Knowledge clip: Metadata (8:20)
Metadata is commonly defined as 'data about data'.
Creating good metadata about the data about the generated research data is often described as 'a love letter to the future'. Memory is unreliable and what an individual remembers tomorrow, in 2 weeks, or 5 years time will be very different.
Metadata provides descriptive information and context about research data, making it easier to understand, organise, and manage throughout its lifecycle. It serves as essential documentation that describes the various aspects of data, facilitating data discovery, interpretation, and reuse.
Some funders or publishers may contractually require research data to be made available where possible. If such is the case its best practice to create the metadata as the data is generated.
There are different types of metadata. The ARDC Metadata page describes the following types of metadata:
Some sites have additional metadata types:
When creating metadata it is useful to have selected a 'metadata standard'. The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) describe metadata standards as
Specifications for the minimum information that should be collected about research data in order for it to be re-used.
Adopting a metadata standard as a template for capturing metadata is preferable to using improvised and possibly inconsistent methods of recording the metadata.
There are general metadata standards such as Dublin Core which has “15 core elements (properties) for describing resources”.
The DCC lists discipline specific metadata standards that may be more appropriate and supportive of the needs of your project.
Additional metadata that should be collected that may affect reproducibility are external variables such as machinery settings, software versions, and environmental conditions
Resources
https://mozillascience.github.io/open-data-primers/2.2-metadata.html