Metadata: Data about your Data

Findable

 Metadata and data should be easy to find for both humans and computers.

Accessible

Once the user finds the required data, s/he needs to know how can they be accessed.

Interoperable 

Data usually need to be integrated with other data. And data need to interoperate with applications or workflows for analysis, storage, and processing.

Reusable

Metadata and data should be well-described so they can be replicated and/or combined in different settings.

"The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from." -author unknown

Dublin Core - Defines fifteen basic metadata elements for resource discovery in a cross-disciplinary information environment, designed for interoperability. Learn more at about the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. 

Disciplinary Metadata - from the Digital Curation Centre in the UK

Arts 

• Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA)
• Visual Resources Association (VRA)

Biological data

• Darwin Core - examples

Ecological data

• Ecological Metadata Language (EML)
• EML Best Practices for LTER sites - LTER Information Management

Geospatial data

FGDC - Federal Geographic Data Committee

Humanities, Social Sciences and Linguistics

• Text Encoding Inititiative (TEI)

Scientific data

• Directory Interchange Format (DIF)

Social Sciences and Archiving

• Data Documentation Initiative (DDI)
• Encoded Archival Description (EAD)