The Metadata Editor of GFZ Data Services

Following the FAIR principles, research data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reuseable. Publishing research output under these principles requires to generate machine-readable metadata and to use persistent identifiers for cross-linking with research articles, related software for processing or physical samples that were used to derive the data. In addition, research data should be indexed with domain keywords to facilitate discovery. Software solutions are required that help scientists in generating metadata, since metadata models tend to be complex and the serialisation into a format for metadata dissemination is a challenging task.

For the publication activities of ‘GFZ Data Services’ we developed a metadata editor that assists scientists to create metadata in different metadata schemas (ISO19115, NASA GCMD DIF, DataCite) that are popular in the earth sciences, while being at the same time usable by and understandable for scientists. Emphasis is placed on removing barriers in particular, the editor is publicly available on the internet [1] without registration, a copy of the metadata can be saved to and loaded from the local hard disk and scientists are not requested to provide information that may be generated automatically. To improve usability, form fields are translated into the scientific language and we offer a facility to search structured vocabulary lists. Vocabulary terms originate from GCMD Science Keywords, Instruments, and Platforms, the International Chronostratigraphic Chart, the CGI Simple Lithology and the INSPIRE GEMET Thesaurus. Related research products that improve understanding and reuse can be linked through persistent identifiers. In addition, multiple geospatial references can be entered via an interactive mapping tool, which helps to minimize problems with different conventions to provide latitudes and longitudes.

The metadata editor exists in different instances that are tailored to the needs of particular research projects or research infrastructures, e.g. the ’Multi-scale Laboratories‘ Thematic Core Service of the European Plate Observing System (EPOS-IP) or the Geophysical Instrument Pool Potsdam (GIPP).

[1] http://dataservices.gfz-potsdam.de/panmetaworks/metaedit