What is Metadata?
Metadata is “data about data”. Metadata serves multiple purposes in Yoda, the most important being:
- To describe the contents of a dataset for a broad audience.
- To inform the audience whether the data can be reused and if so, under what conditions.
- To prescribe how the data should be cited and whom to acknowledge.
- To inform digital archivists and IT staff about how long the data should be retained.
- To facilitate finding the dataset in data catalogues.
We distinguish two types of metadata:
Structured metadata consists of information that is standardized globally and used by data catalogs. Examples are the title of the data package, its creator, the retention period of the package, etc.
When a data package is published, Yoda makes the structured metadata available for harvesting by data catalogs, such as DataCite.
Unstructured metadata is intended to provide more detailed information about the data. This information can be in a README.TXT or other file that is included as part of the data package. The format of this file is chosen by the researcher. Users will need to open and inspect the data package to find this metadata. Unstructured metadata can include information about (for example) the experimental design, data transformation, sampling method, etc.
You can read more in-depth information about metadata on the dedicated page