Metadata Guidance

Numerous metadata standards are available to describe data. The standard used to describe your data will be determined by the respoitory you archive data at. Regardless of what metadata standard used, there are 10 essential metadata fields that should always accompany a dataset:

1. Title • ‘what, where, when’

2. Abstract • ‘what, where, when, how, why, who’ • instrumentation • file types/formats • funding source

3. Keywords • useful keyword are assigned from a controlled vocabulary (e.g. GCMD, NERC)

4. Personnel • who produced the data • contact for the resource

5. Lineage/Methodology • how was the data created/processed

6. Quality • information about the accuracy • instrument calibrations • factors affecting the data

7. Spatial Information • what spatial location does the data represent

8. Temporal Information • what time period does the data represent

9. Digital Object Identifier (DOI) • does the metadata and data carry a DOI

10. Link to the Data • are the data retrievable by URL

* Further metadata guidance is provided by the The Spatial Information Council, and British Antarctic Survey Data Center .