Best Practices for Dataset Metadata in Ecological Metadata Language

Version 4

draft

These recommendations for creating EML metadata documents can be applied to most research datasets. This is Version 4 (2024), written by the LTER/EDI EML Best Practices Working Group. Find earlier versions here.

Authors

Affiliations

Corinna Gries

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Gabriel Kamener

Florida International University

Sage Lichtenwalner

Rutgers University

Mary Martin

University of New Hampshire

Gregory E. Maurer

New Mexico State University

Margaret O’Brien

University of California, Santa Barbara

John H. Porter

University of Virginia

Tim Whiteaker

University of Texas at Austin

LTER Network Information Management Committee

Various

Published

November 15, 2024

Abstract

This book presents “best practice” recommendations for creating metadata documents in the Ecological Metadata Language (EML), a widely accepted standard for research metadata exchange in the environmental sciences. The document focuses the most common use-cases for EML and recommends content and formatting for its most important and frequently-used metadata elements. As such, these recommendations can be applied to most research datasets that include EML metadata. There are also recommendations specific to the U.S. LTER Network and Environmental Data Initiative (EDI) repository. This is Version 4 of the book, updated in 2024 by the EML Best Practices working group of the LTER Network Information Management Committee.

Keywords

data, metadata, publishing, guide, repository, LTER Network, Environmental Data Initiative

Reuse

CC BY 4.0

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@online{gries2024,
  author = {Gries, Corinna and Kamener, Gabriel and Lichtenwalner, Sage
    and Martin, Mary and E. Maurer, Gregory and O’Brien, Margaret and H.
    Porter, John and Whiteaker, Tim and Network Information Management
    Committee, LTER},
  title = {Best {Practices} for {Dataset} {Metadata} in {Ecological}
    {Metadata} {Language}},
  date = {2024-11-15},
  url = {https://prerelease-edi-docs.netlify.app/guide-eml-bp/book.html},
  doi = {10.5555/12345678},
  langid = {en},
  abstract = {This book presents “best practice” recommendations for
    creating metadata documents in the Ecological Metadata Language
    (EML), a widely accepted standard for research metadata exchange in
    the environmental sciences. The document focuses the most common
    use-cases for EML and recommends content and formatting for its most
    important and frequently-used metadata elements. As such, these
    recommendations can be applied to most research datasets that
    include EML metadata. There are also recommendations specific to the
    U.S. LTER Network and Environmental Data Initiative (EDI)
    repository. This is Version 4 of the book, updated in 2024 by the
    EML Best Practices working group of the LTER Network Information
    Management Committee.}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Gries, Corinna, Gabriel Kamener, Sage Lichtenwalner, Mary Martin, Gregory E. Maurer, Margaret O’Brien, John H. Porter, Tim Whiteaker, and LTER Network Information Management Committee. 2024. “Best Practices for Dataset Metadata in Ecological Metadata Language.” Environmental Data Initiative. November 15, 2024. https://doi.org/10.5555/12345678.