Research Data Management 101
Read this lesson. Pay attention to the lifecycle (process) of data sets. Answer the questions in this lesson.
Data lifecycle management (DLM) is the policy or process that governs organizational data use. You learned that data management is an administrative function and DLM is a process to manage and preserve that data. Remember, good DLM includes all the phases of the data lifecycle. This is essential to data-driven decisions and actions taken by organizations daily.
Data Documentation (AKA Metadata)
Metadata: why does it matter?
Metadata: why does it matter?
Data is not self-describing.
Metadata, or "data about data" explains your dataset and allows you to document important information for:
- Finding the data later
- Understanding what the data is later
- Sharing the data (both with collaborators and future secondary data users)
- Consider it an investment of time that will save you trouble later several-fold
Metadata standards
Examples:
- FGDC (Federal Geographic Data Committee)
- DDI (Data Documentation Initiative)
- Dublin Core
- Darwin Core
- ABCD (Access to Biological Collections Data)
- AVMS (Astronomy Visualization Metadata Standard)
- CSDGM (Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata)
Advantages:
- Ensure you have a complete, standard set of information about each part of your data
- Enable your dataset to be organized with other datasets
Metadata
Do what works for you!
Document and describe your data
in whatever way works for you.
Better "good enough" than doing nothing
Metadata: our case study
Possible metadata options:
1. Dublin Core
- General metadata standard
- Widely applicable
- Used in many different repositories
2. Darwin Core
- For biological diversity
- Emphasizes taxonomy, which I don't care about
- Frequently used in biodiversity databases
Metadata: our case study
Our directory: sam_monarch_wing_20150415
Metadata for this directory:
- Creator: Katherine McNeill
- Subject: monarch butterfly wing
- Description: this directory contains Sashimi ESEM images of a monarch butterfly wing I took after finding a butterfly floating by the Charles River near MIT
- Contributor: Mark Clemente helped me with these images
- Date: 20151015
- Original Format: Sashimi Microscope format (.sam)
- Relation: this is a directory that will contain multiple files
- Type: image
- Coverage: By the Charles River in Cambridge, MA, MIT side
- Rights: Monarch Butterfly Research Foundation (funder) owns the data (grant number: 00213)
Metadata: our case study
Metadata for this image:
- Title:
sam_monarch_wing_20150415_CM_001.tif
- Source:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.sam
- Relation:
is a file in the directory: sam_monarch_wing_20150415
Metadata: capturing it
In a filename
In a readme file
In a spreadsheet
In an XML file
Into a database
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When choosing how to capture metadata, consider:
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