Metadata, vocabularies and licensing

Managing research data in repositories workshop, 11 Nov 2015Kathryn Unsworth

What I’ll cover today

A little context

What is metadata?● Definitions● Types of metadata

You say, I say, we say – metadata huh?!

Repository managers/staff helping researchers to:● Improve their metadata for discovery/interoperability - a brief

look at controlled vocabularies● Improve their metadata for reuse - a brief look at licensing

Can’t be done without metadata!

Data without metadata is wasted effort!

Copyrighted image – Wasting time - http://julettemillien.com/3-top-ways-we-waste-time-what-to-do-about-it/

What is metadata?Definitions, types of metadata and examples

Metadata is “structured data about data”. It typically provides detailed information about a specific data object or file.DATUM in Action https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/static/5007/ceispdf/metaguide.pdf

What is metadata?

“Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource. Metadata is often called data about data or information about information.”--National Information Standards Organisation (NISO)http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf

Metadata provides information enabling us to make sense of data (e.g. documents, images, datasets), concepts (e.g. classification schemes) and real-world entities (e.g. people, organisations, places).Open Data Support - https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/d2.1.2_training_module_1.4_introduction_to_metadata_management_v1.00_en_0.pdf

You say, I say, we say – are we talking

about the same thing?

• Labels in a spreadsheet; accompanying data dictionary • Digital image attributes coming off photographic

equipment: image size, color depth, image resolution, when the image was created, etc.

• ReadMe file accompanying software code• File/Folder names• Meta tags for web pages• Meteorological measurements: location of readings

(latitude, longitude, and height), instrumentation used to collect data, units, processing actions

• Metadata for research dataset records

For example:

The metadata “accompanying your data set should be written for a user 20 years into the future. Therefore, you should consider what that investigator needs to know to use your data. Write the documentation for a user who is unfamiliar with your project, sites, methods, or observations.“Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Distributed Active Archive Center (2010)

A message to your researchers:

Cea+. (2012). Metadata is a love not to the future https://flic.kr/p/digHTN CC By 2.0

Data without

metadata is a missed

opportunity!

Quote by Thomas Edison

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

Assumed copyrighted image from: https://www.pinterest.com/melindagordon22/citations-thomas-edison/

Common types of metadata:Descriptive metadata - describes a dataset for the purposes of discovery and identification

Structural metadata – models content types and attributes (records, elements, attributes) and also indicates how a dataset may form part of a multi-layered and/or complex data object (data collection)

Administrative metadata - provides information to help manage a dataset and ensure its authenticity (versions, ownership (IP), licensing)

Administrative metadata

Structural metadata

{A}

Repository managers have responsibility for some of the structural metadata that shapes their data collection records, i.e. what are the most appropriate elements/fields to include.

Structural metadata

Descriptive metadata

Data without metadata is only half the story!

So why are we telling half the story?

Assumed Copyrighted image from Google: https://www.google.com/search?q=telling+only+half+the+story+quotes&espv=2&biw=1680&bih=921&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CFgQ7AlqFQoTCICVz-7zk8kCFeXfpgodVZUGlg&dpr=1#tbm=isch&q=telling+only+half+the+story&imgrc=YnRV0S_VAPsZiM%3A

Aiding data discovery

Raising a researcher’s profile

What is a controlled vocabulary?

Using thesauri, taxonomies and standardised lists of terms for assigning values to metadata properties.

Vocabularies in everyday life

Aiding data reuse

Vocabularies

Vocabularies & research

Vocabularies & data reuse {A}Data

Data dictionary

Vocabularies & data linking

{A}

ANDS Vocabulary Service - RVA

http://www.ands.org.au/ ANDS Vocabulary Service © Australian National Data Service 2015,

is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

vocabs.ands.org.au

RVA Documentation Home:https://documentation.ands.org.au/display/DOC/Research+Vocabularies

Contact us to get started: services@ands.org.au

Data reuse and the role of licensing

Aiding data reuse

Making Ts & Cs around data reuse explicit

Rights and data reuseFront facing in RDA

Registry view in RDA

Recent Release 18 changes to RIF-CS vocabulary - definitionsOpen: Data is publicly accessible onlineConditional: Data is publicly accessible online, subject to certain conditions.  For example: an embargo period; a fee applies.Restricted: Data access is limited.  For example: to a particular group of users; where formal permission is granted; the data may only be accessed at a specific physical location.

AusGOAL licensing framework

AusGOAL contains eight licensing options:• Six Australian Creative Commons (CC) Version

4.0 licences • Restrictive Licence Template (RLT)• BSD 3-Clause Software Licence

ANDS endorses AusGOAL

Wide support by Federal and State Governments

Licensing and data

NOT FOR DATA

Slide is courtesy of Baden Appleyard – Director of AusGOAL

https://learn.canvas.net/courses/4/pages/compatibility-of-creative-commons-licenses?module_item_id=52575

Creative Commons Licenses compatibility

The Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research says "Researchers have a responsibility to their colleagues and the wider community to disseminate a full account of their research as broadly as possible". In terms of research data, the best way to achieve this objective is to license the data (using AusGOAL) and to place it in a publicly-accessible repository (along with appropriate metadata etc).

If you don't license the data, no-one else can use it; it's that simple!

A message for researchers

ANDS - Copyright, data and licensinghttp://ands.org.au/guides/copyright-and-data-awareness.html

“Metadata has value for data users, data developers, and organizations. No dataset should be considered complete without accompanying metadata.

Data without metadata is useless”.

Source: U.S. Geological Survey - Core Science Analytics and Synthesis – Metadata

Dublin Core Element Set - Emphasis on web resources, publicationshttp://dublincore.org/documents/dces/

FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) - Emphasis on geospatial datahttp://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/geospatial-metadata-standards

ISO 19115/19139 Geographic information: Metadata - Emphasis on geospatial data and serviceshttp://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/geospatial-metadata-standards#fgdcendorsedisostandards

Metadata Standards Examples

Metadata Standards Examples continued…

Ecological Metadata Language (EML) - Focus on ecological datahttp://knb.ecoinformatics.org/eml_metadata_guide.html

Darwin Core - Emphasis on museum specimenshttp://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/index.htm

Geography Markup Language (GML) - Emphasis on geographic features (roads, highways, bridges)http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/gml

In summary• Well-managed, well-connected, discoverable and

reusable data depend on metadata!

• Minimal metadata is acceptable for discovery, but can be useless for the reuse of data

• When talking with researchers and other data stakeholders, either be explicit about what metadata is in scope or better still refer to it in another way

• Controlled vocabs are highly useful for data discovery, interoperability, and reuse – check out RVA

• Data without an appropriate license is essentially a reuse nightmare

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License

ANDS is supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).