Metadata

Metadata is information about data. Any available information should be added to the metadata. It usually contains information such as who, what, when, where and how data were produced. The mandatory related metadata are the Event, with its geographical position (Pangaea is primarily a georeferenced database!).

Metadata fields around a dataset desribe the factual data and make it citable (mandatory fields in bold). The size/composition of a data set (and consequently the amount of required metadata) depends on the definition of its granularity.


 * PI for each data series (could be one for all; full name with email)
 * Author(s) of data set (if different from PI)
 * Data set title (phrasing should be similar to the title of a publication)
 * Reference(s) (if data are supplementary to a publication or if data are a compilation from various sources) (with URI)
 * Method for each data series (with URI)
 * Comment for each data series
 * Comment for data set or pdf-file with supplemental information
 * Abstract (in case data are a supplement or the data set is a data publication)
 * Keyword(s)
 * Quality flag for each data value

!> Pangaea should not be used for the management of metadata sets solely, e.g. as reference database or just listing campaigns/events of a project. In principle metadata should be archived only, if the factual data are also made available.