Metadata are "data to data", e.g. a file name and date or the entries in the columns of a row in a table. In the context of research data management a distinction must be made between:

• Metadata of the dataset as a whole, i.e. e.g. information on the project (project title, duration, persons involved, topic), which is entered e.g. in journals, data repositories and research information systems and ultimately ensures the good findability and visibility of the dataset (and the associated research).
• Metadata of the data within the dataset, e.g. measurement parameters. With regard to these metadata, it is recommended to search for relevant standards or to define your own.

Metadata standards and standardized vocabularies

It is recommended to search for relevant standards, whereby the following terms are relevant:

• Metadata standards
• standardized vocabularies

Starting points for the search offer e.g. subject-specific guidelines as well as pages like

• RDA Metadata Standards Directory 
• FAIRsharing.org
• BARTOC

If there are no standards/vocabularies (fulfilling all aspects), you should encode the data according to your own rules and document them well. Wherever possible, you should build on already existing (in the department) common standards (e.g. encode standardized place and person identifiers of the GND instead of just entering place and person names without ID).

Further information is available under:

• Metadata Standards (Digital Curation Centre)