Metadata Profiles

Metadata structures and describes data and are a key element in Coscine. They serve to ensure the findability and reproducibility of data regarding the FAIR principles. For this reason, all files of a resource should be provided with metadata. Depending on the subject area, subject-specific combinations of metadata have become established, so-called metadata schemata. However, since these metadata schemas often follow strict rules, the term metadata profile was coined in Coscine. In Coscine, Metadata Profiles can be created that are either similar to an already established metadata schema (e.g. EngMeta) or are completely new and individual.

Metadata Profiles in Resources

When configuring a resource, you have to specify an metadata profile. The metadata profile represents your metadata schema and should be chosen carefully. After all, you use the metadata scheme to define the fields with which you can later describe your files. It is not possible to change the metadata profile for existing files. Many different metadata profiles are available in Coscine and managed in our GitLab Repository.

Base

The Base metadata schema is a list of essential properties that you can use to describe your research data. It is based on the DataCite metadata schema Kernel 4.0, a widespread standard for describing data records without considering the respective discipline. Base contains three mandatory fields (Title, Creator, Creation Date) and two optional fields (Subject Area, Type).

We recommend Base primarily as a starting point for creating an individual metadata profile, since it already contains the essential metadata fields for a possible data publication with DOI assignment. Since Base does not contain any subject-specific fields, it supports the findability and reproducibility of research data only to a limited extent. Especially for large datasets (or large storage space requests), we therefore recommend the use of subject-specific metadata profiles such as EngMeta.

EngMeta

EngMeta is a metadata schema for describing engineering research data. As part of the DIPL-ING project, the EngMeta metadata model was created to describe research data from (computer-aided) engineering.

In addition to general information such as the author, title and creation date, EngMeta also offers description categories for the recorded and controlled variables, components and boundary conditions of the observed system as well as parameters of the observation itself, e.g. the temporal and spatial resolution. EngMeta also enables the documentation of the entire research process including the actors involved, software, instruments and computing environment as well as the methods used with their parameters.

Individual Metadata Profiles

If you cannot find a suitable metadata profile for your project among those already available, please use the metadata profile generator to create your own metadata profile.