The Metadata Application Profile (MAP) defines a document with element names, definitions and usage rules guiding metadata creation for the resources. In designing the MAP file, several things are recommended to take into consideration, such as the project goal and its functional requirements, what needs to be described for the resource, what metadata elements already exist in or can be adapted from the standard metadata schemes, what new local elements need to be added, how to define these elements and how to use and encode these elements. A MAP file can be written in text, PDF and webpages for human users or RDF for machine processing. In many cases, a template would play the similar role in working with existing digital repositories.
For researchers, there are common metadata standards and domain specific metadata standards to consider before you start to document and manage your data. Below are some general fields across all domains you may consider so that you will be able to back up your data in an institutional data repository and most digital repositories.
| Field | Definition |
|---|---|
| Title | A name given to the dataset or the research project that produced it. |
| Creator | An entity primarily responsible for creating the resource or dataset. |
| Contributors | An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource or dataset. |
| Description | An account of the resource or dataset. Can include abstract, table of contents, access information, data processing information and methodology on how the data was generated (such as equipment or software used, experimental protocol, other things one might include in a lab notebook). |
| Publisher | An entity responsible for making the resource or dataset available. |
| Subject | Keywords or phrases describing the content of the resource or dataset. |
| Identifier | An unambiguous reference to the resource or dataset within a given context. |
| Language | Language(s) of the content of the resource or dataset, if applicable. |
| Rights | Any known intellectual property rights held for the data, including access rights and rights holder. |
| Type | The nature or genre of the resource, e.g. dataset, image. |
| Format | Format(s) of the data, e.g. FITS, SPSS, HTML, JPEG, and any software required to read the data. |
| Date | Key dates associated with the dataset, including: project start and end date; release date; time period covered by the data; and other dates associated with the data lifespan, e.g., maintenance cycle, update schedule. |
| Source | A related resource from which the data is derived, including details of where the source data is held and how it was accessed. |
| Relation | A related resource, including "Relation- Has Format Of," "Relation- Is Format Of," "Relation- Has Part," "Relation- Is Part Of," "Relation- Has Version," "Relation- Is Version Of," "Relation- Replaces," "Relation- Is Replaced By," "Relation- Requires," "Relation- Is Required By." |
| Coverage | The spatial and temporal topic of the resource or dataset. |
| Audience | class of entity for whom the resource or dataset is intended or useful. |
| Provenance | A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource or dataset since its creation that is significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. |
The above fields are all Dublin Core compliant, which will make data sharing and harvesting across subject domains and data repositories easy. However, non-DC compliant elements and domain specific information are equally if not more important to record.
| Field | Definition |
|---|---|
| Funders | Organizations or agencies that funded the research. |
| List of file names | List of all data files associated with the project, with their names and file extensions. |
| File structure | Organization of the data file(s) and the layout of the variables, if applicable. |
| Variable list | List of variables in the data files, if applicable. |
| Code lists | Explanation of codes or abbreviations used in either the file names or the variables in the data files (e.g. "* indicates a missing value in the data"). |
| Checksums | To check for data integrity and test if your file has changed over time. |