D5.2 – Roadmap for internationalization of metadata guidelines and vocabularies

Aggregating metadata records from repositories and other data providers in order to provide
regional and global discovery and analytics services requires metadata normalization. The
quality, consistency and interoperability of metadata in repositories, therefore, is an important
aspect that can influence the quality of these services and ultimately, the value of repositories in
general. Repositories follow consistent guidelines, protocols, and standards for interoperability
such as OpenAIRE Guidelines. The guidelines set important requirements with regards to the
integration into repository platforms and have gained geographical significance, on the other
hand, the current process for contributing to the development of guidelines is not representative
of the expanding user community, nor is it well understood to those outside of OpenAIRE. There
is an opportunity to formalize the approach and governance of the OpenAIRE guidelines to reflect
their evolution.  
Based on this context, COAR is proposing to undertake several activities that will contribute to
improving the quality, comprehensiveness and alignment of metadata in repositories
internationally. While there are other efforts to improve scholarly metadata, such as
metadata2020 and the RDA Metadata Directory, the activities outlined in this roadmap will
specifically target the repository community by working with regional networks and other
regional associations, who have more direct access with the local organizations managing
repositories. This document outlines the rationale and roadmap that will help advance alignment
of repository metadata and begin to define a more representative governance structure for the
OpenAIRE guidelines that are starting to be adopted outside of Europe.