Metadata for Scientific Data (MeS)
Metadata for Scientific Datasets Workshop at Dublin Core 2008
Summary notes and report from the workshop.
Funders of research in the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia are increasingly attentive to the curation of scientific data sets so that the full value of research investments can be realized and preserved. Doing so will require greater attention to the description and structure of datasets such that their value can be embedded and retained more readily in the scaffolding of scientific knowledge. The central challenges include:
- Canonical identification of datasets. Critical for establishing provenance, auditing value and use, and attracting social-networking attention that will enhance their value.
- Unfound data is unused data. Datasets that cannot be discovered will not be reused, and the value of the data is thus unavailable for further exploitation.
- Unstructured data is difficult to use: Datasets should be designed and structured for reuse at the time of experimental design.
This session explored interest and opportunities in the Dublin Core community around these emerging topics, with the objective of creating an international forum to help advance solutions.
The workshop took place on September 25, 2008 at the Dublin Core 2008 conference in Berlin.
Workshop agenda:
- Introduction
- Brief Presentations:
- Data Curation: an NSF DataNet Perspective; John A. Kunze, California Digital Library
- Metadata on Primary Biodiversity Information; Jörg Holetschek, Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem
- The Dryad Repository for Data Underlying Scientific Publications; Jane Greenberg, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- DISC-UK DataShare and Institutional Data Repositories; Robin Rice, EDINA and Data Library, University of Edinburgh
- Comments and summary by P. Bryan Heidorn, Associate Professor at the University of Illinois and Program Manager in the Division of Biological Infrastructure at the National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Three minute madness: Participants spoke for 3 minutes about their work, interest in, and challenges related to metadata for scientific data
- Open discussion
- Vote/discussion about a Dublin Core community
Contact information:
For questions, please contact Sarah Carrier, SILS Metadata Research Center Doctoral Fellow (scarrier at email dot unc dot edu).