Research Workspace Metadata Editor Documentation

Research Workspace Metadata EditorDocumentation

Release latest

Axiom Data Science

Mar 30, 2017

Contents:

1 Introduction 3

2 Meditor Basics 5

3 Navigation 7

4 The Black Bar 9

5 The Navigation Pane 11

6 The Main Window 13

7 Advanced Features 15

8 FAQ 17

9 Indices and tables 19

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Research Workspace Metadata Editor Documentation, Release latest

This is YET ANOTHER a test.

Contents: 1


2 Contents:

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This document is a guide to get you started using the metadata editor (the Meditor). The Meditor is a feature ofthe Research Workspace (RW) designed to help you author high-quality metadata, which is an important (thoughoften-overlooked) step in the archiving process that is essential for sharing your data with other researchers.

After this short introduction, basic use of the Meditor is covered in the Meditor Basics section. More advanced featuresare covered in the aptly-named Advanced Features section. If you have a question and can’t seem to find the answer,try the FAQ section.

This guide is intended to cover the technical basics of using the Meditor. For help with authoring the content of ahigh-quality metadata record, please see Axiom’s Scientific Metadata Best Practices.

If you’ve read all those and still have questions—or if you’ve found a bug to report or would like to request anadditional feature—please email [email protected] and let us know.

Background

The Meditor is a tool designed to help researchers like yourself document their data. Information entered into theMeditor creates an ISO-compliant metadata record that can be shared through a public data portal and/or exportedas an XML file. Documenting your data with high-quality metadata makes it easier for other researchers to find andre-use your data, increasing the value of your work and opening the door for future collaboration with others.

In order for metadata to be of use to other researchers, it needs to be up-to-date, to be accurate, and to thoroughlydescribe several different aspects of your data and how they were collected. Additionally, in order for computers to dothe best they can in cataloging and sharing your metadata (via searches through a public data portal, for example), themetadata must be stored in a consistent, highly-structured format. Depending on the nature of your data, satisfyingthese two requirements can make authoring high-quality metadata a challenge.

Our goal with the Meditor was to do as much of the hard work (like choosing a standard and formatting complex fieldslike dates and citations) for you and let you focus on what you know better than anyone: how to best describe yourdata.

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4 Chapter 1. Introduction

CHAPTER 2

Meditor Basics

The following instructions assume you already have an RW user account, have been added to a group within the RW,have created a project within that group, and have uploaded at least one data file that you’d like to write metadata for.If you need help getting started with any of those tasks, please see the Research Workspace Tutorial.

Throughout the RW, the “spreadsheet” icon [screenshot1] is used to represent a metadata record. You can create ametadata record at 3 different levels within your project:

• a file-level record (to describe a stand-alone CSV of data, for example)

• a folder-level record (to describe a group of related CSVs of data, for example)

• a project-level record (to describe elements, such as funding or contact info, that are common among all the datafiles of your project)

Note: If you have questions about which type of metadata record you should be creating, contact your programcoordinator or email [email protected].

To create or edit one of the metadata records mentiond above, you’ll need to launch the Meditor. How you launch theMeditor depends on which of those three types of record you want to create:

• to create a file level record, left-click on the metadata icon next to the name of the file (the icon will be greyed-outuntil you create a record, after which it will display in black)[screenshot2]

• to create a folder-level record, right-click on the folder in the left-hand sidebar and select “Metadata” fromthe pop-up menu (folders without metadata records will display no icon; folders with records will display themetadata icon in black)[screenshot3]

• to create a project-level record, hover over your project listing within the program view and left-click the meta-data icon when it appears (part of your project listing will turn yellow, and the right-hand side will turn blue,with the metadata icon in white)[screenshot4]

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CHAPTER 3

Navigation

Once you’ve launched the Meditor, it will open to the first page of your metadata record, which contains the ResourceOverview section [screenshot5]. As noted in that screenshot, each page of the Meditor is made up of the same threeparts:

• the black bar across the top

• the navigation pane on the left

• the main window in the middle right-ish

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8 Chapter 3. Navigation

CHAPTER 4

The Black Bar

The black bar across the top contains the title of your metadata record on the left, as well as 4 buttons [screenshot6]:

• Save (which saves your full record to the RW)

• Copy (which allows you to import the contents of another metadata record into your record)

• Delete full record (which asks you to confirm the delete and then removes the full record completely from theRW)

• Export (which allows you to choose 1 of 2 ISO standards for an XML export of your metadata record)

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10 Chapter 4. The Black Bar

CHAPTER 5

The Navigation Pane

The navigation pane contains links to each section of your metadata record [screenshot7]. Clicking on a section opensit in the main window and expands any subsections available within that section.

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12 Chapter 5. The Navigation Pane

CHAPTER 6

The Main Window

The main window of the Meditor displays the title of the current section, a general description of the section, and a graybox that contains the fields into which you enter the content of your metadata record (along with some help text hintsfor filling in the fields; note that some sections have multiple tabs within the gray box) [screenshot8]. Additionally,the main window contains several buttons (listed here in clockwise order from the top):

• another clipboard icon (which copies content from another metadata record into this page only—as opposed tothe full-record import button above or the section-level import button described below)

• an export icon (an arrow pointing downward in circle, which exports the current section in JSON format—thisopens in a new window from which the content can be copied)

• yet another clipboard icon (which copies content from another metadata record into this section of your metadatareocrd only—as opposed to the full-record import button or the page import button described above)

• Skip this step button (which opens the next section or subsection listed in the navigation pane WITHOUT savingany changes you may have made)

• Save (which saves your current metadata record to the RW, the same as the Save button in the black bar at thetop of the page)

• Save form (which saves your current metadata record to the RW, the same as the Save button in the black bar atthe top of the page and the other Save button just above it [we have really anal programmers])

• Save and go to: button (green; this saves the current version of your metadata record and opens the next sectionor subsection listed in the navigation pane)

• Skip this step button (which opens the next section or subsection listed in the navigation pane WITHOUT savingany changes you may have made)

That covers the basics of launching and navigating the Meditor. Once you’ve created a record and spent a little timeworking with it, we hope you find its layout to be intuitive and efficient. For more information on time-saving featureswithin the Meditor, please see the Advanced Features section below. And for help writing high-quality metadatacontent, please see Axiom’s Metadata Best Practices.

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CHAPTER 7

Advanced Features

Templates/Flavors

Import/Export

Aggregating Multiple Records

Contact Info Lookup

Easier Data Table Attributes

Recovering Deleted Metadata

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16 Chapter 7. Advanced Features

CHAPTER 8

FAQ

What’s with the name?

Why are there so many redundant buttons?

I love metadata! Where can I learn more?

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CHAPTER 9

Indices and tables

• genindex

• modindex

• search

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Documents

Research Workspace Metadata Editor Documentation