Submitted by carynn on Fri, 02/08/2008 - 13:41
Submitted by graybeal on Mon, 11/22/2010 - 13:50
Metadata are used to describe data or information. In environmental sciences like oceanography, metadata describe the information that scientists collect and informs users about the characteristics and history of a data set or data item—including methodological, temporal and spatial information.
The word metadata is sometimes used in a singular form (metadata is). We use the plural (metadata are). Both are in common usage, though in the sciences it’s typically used in the plural.