What is a metadata standard?

Short Answer

A metadata standard defines what information about other data is recorded and how this has to be done.

Detailed Answer

For metadata to be machine-readable, it has to follow certain rules. Metadata defines categories, and the standard gives those a standardised format and standardised names.

For example, when the identification date of a species is recorded, in the Darwin Core metadata standard the corresponding field is <dwc:dateIdentified> and the allowed format is the ISO-8601 format, e.g. 2000-01-01.

In the ABCD standard, the same information would be represented as follows, also also using the ISO-8601 format:

    <abcd:DateTime>
        <abcd:ISODateTimeBegin>2000-01-01</abcd:ISODateTimeBegin>
    </abcd:DateTime>

Therefore, a metadata standard specifies exactly how the metadata has to be recorded, including which information, which formal type (numbers, text, format) and it may limit the number characters for the respective fields.

See also:

• FAQ: Wat are descriptive metadata? Will they be archived together with the research data?
• FAQ: What are metadata?
• FAQ: How do I submit metadata and data?