Data Documentation / Metadata

Complete Documentation of EML from the Knowledge Network of Biocomplexity (KNB)

Provides information on extensions, tools and specific use cases

This hanbook is designed for ecologists, ecological information managers, and ecology students and provides in depth look at EML.

Best Practices for Dataset Metadata in Ecological Metadata Language (EML Best Practices
V3). 2017. Environmental Data Initiative.

The Environmental Data Initiative has created the EMLassemblyline R code package. A user-friendly workflow to help craft high quality EML metadata yourself. The assembly line is useful for publishing one-off data packages or to provide a foundation for a data package factory.

AbstractBioinformatics, the application of computational tools to the management and analysis of biological data, has stimulated rapid research advances in genomics through the development of data archives such as GenBank, and similar progress is just beginning within ecology. One reason for the belated adoption of informatics approaches in ecology is the breadth of ecologically pertinent data (from genes to the biosphere) and its highly heterogeneous nature. The variety of formats, logical structures, and sampling methods in ecology create significant challenges. Cultural barriers further impede progress, especially for the creation and adoption of data standards. Here we describe informatics frameworks for ecology, from subject-specific data warehouses, to generic data collections that use detailed metadata descriptions and formal ontologies to catalog and cross-reference information. Combining these approaches with automated data integration techniques and scientific workflow systems will maximize the value of data and open new frontiers for research in ecology.

Metadata are essential to understanding a dataset. In this video, Kristin discusses how structured metadata are used to document, discover, and analyze ecological datasets. She will also offer some tips for creating quality metadata content. Margaret gave an introduction to the metadata language used by EDI, Ecological Metadata Language (EML). EML is written in XML, a general purpose mechanism for describing hierarchical information, so she will also describe some general XML features and how these apply to EML.