Harmonization of Metadata Standards

MetadataData about data. Metadata provides a context for research findings, ideally in a machine-readable format. It enables discovery of data via an electronic interface, and correct use and attribution of findings. Related Guide standards are often described in terms of elementIndividual instance of a metadata label and value pair. For example, "creator: John Doe" is a metadata element. Related Guide names and definitions. A standard defines the rules for how the metadata are structured and also the appropriate content for the various elements.

However, different standards can be stated in different ways. In other words, a particular standard (the source standard) doesn’t have to use the same element labels (names) for similar content, or allow the same terms to be filled in to each element as another standard (the target standard).

In the harmonizationIn the context of crosswalking, metadata schema of the source and the target standards are represented in the same syntax during harmonization. Related Guide process, the source and target metadata standards are resolved with the same syntax or model. In the simplest case, this is done by creating a table of fields from each standard in a common application (e.g., a spreadsheet). The table rows would likely contain elements from the source standard that are in some way related to elements of the target standard. In the simplest case, there would be one-to-one relationshipsConnections between metadata terms within a vocabulary. These relationships can connect terms by scope, provenance, or other well-defined criteria. between source elements and target elements.

In more complex harmonization cases, there are one-to-many or many-to-one relationships. Also, intra-relationships between the elements within a single standard must be thoroughly described as part of the harmonization process. Of course, this implies the elements must be thoroughly described in the source and target standard.