Rich Metadata
Rich Metadata#
In creating FAIR digital resources, metadata can (and should) be generous and extensive, including descriptive information about the context, quality and condition, or characteristics of the data. Rich metadata allow a computer to automatically accomplish routine and tedious sorting and prioritising tasks that currently demand a lot of attention from researchers.
The rationale behind this principle is that someone should be able to find data based on the information provided by their metadata, even without the data’s identifier. As such, compliance with rich metadata helps people to locate your data, and increase re-use and citations.
Rich metadata implies that you should not presume that you know who will want to use your data, or for what purpose. So, as a rule of thumb, you should never say ‘this metadata isn’t useful’; be generous and provide it anyway!