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 (used in case of georeferenced data only).

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

The following fields are part of the metadata description (mandatory fields in bold):


 * PI (principle investigator) for each data series (could be one for all; full name with email defined in staff table)
 * 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)

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