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Unit 2.7 Study metadata

Overview

Unit study time

  • 10 minutes

Intended Learning Outcome

By the end of the unit, you will be able to ...

  • List core study‑level metadata elements.
  • Describe how study metadata supports discovery in repositories/catalogues.
  • Differentiate between required and optional study metadata elements.

What is study metadata?

As we covered in the Introduction to Metadata course, study metadata captures information about the whole research effort. This metadata provides context on the who, what, when, why, where and how of the overall research study. It also describes where the study's datasets are located and how they can be accessed.

Study level metadata may also be called catalogue metadata, as it's the metadata often required by data repositories and data catalogues. This metadata helps users of these sites to understand and discover different research studies.

[!NOTE] Add Screenshot of study level metadata - data catalogue page

Study metadata is also important for your personal records, even if you're not planning to deposit your data in a data repository or catalogue. Study metadata allows you to organise your research effectively, as well as preserve it for future use so you can come back to it at a later date and have all the necessary information to hand.

Study metadata elements

Core study metadata elements

Title The title of the research study

Creator The creator of the data, this could be the PI of the study

Subject e.g. keywords or topics

Description e.g. an abstract or table of contents

Contributor e.g. people or organisations who contributed to the research process

Date e.g. the date range the research was conducted, the end date of the research etc.

Type

Format The format that the data is stored in

Language The language the data is stored in

Relation Any other publications or resources that are related to the study

Coverage The geographical coverage of the research study as a whole

If you're working on a larger research study and you're planning to share your data, you may want to include more metadata elements, such as...

Funder If the research study is receiving funding, the name of the organisations providing funding

Publisher If the research study

Access rights If the (meta)data for the research study is shared online, you need to state the access rights to the data

Identifier If information about the research study and/or its data is available online, you should provide a DOI or PID to the online location

If you are depositing your data in a repository or catalogue, it is important to check the metadata requirements of those sites to ensure to capture any further metadata elements.

Test your knowledge

Which of the following is an example of study metadata?

  1. The categories for a variable
  2. The definition of a concept
  3. Aims or research objectives
  4. The code assigned to a response
Reveal answer

Study aims and objectives are key elements of study metadata, providing context for why the data were collected.

How does study metadata relate to other types of metadata (e.g. variable, concept, measurement)?

  1. It provides the overall context within which other metadata can be understood
  2. It only applies to file formats
  3. It replaces them
  4. It is unrelated
Reveal answer

Study metadata provides the broader context, while other metadata types describe specific aspects of the data.

[!NOTE] In Intro course I used project level metadata instead of study level metadata however I'm thinking of changing this to study level as well as DDI uses the term 'study' and I want the course to start reflecting DDI terms where possible