EXPLAIN IT WHY YOUR RESEARCH DESERVES GOOD DOCUMENTATION AND METADATA

Why create documentation? Creating documentation can seem like a waste of time Good documentation will include a lot of information that might seem obvious

Make material understandable What’s obvious now might not be in a few months, years, decades… Image: MAKE SURE YOU CAN UNDERSTAND IT LATER

Make material verifiable Detailing your methods helps people understand what you did Explaining your algorithms, search methods etc makes your work reproducible Conclusions can be verified Image by woodleywonderworks on flickr:

Material may be re-used by someone in a different discipline Provide context to minimise the risk of it being misunderstood or misused Make material reusable

Documentation & Metadata Metadata are: –Machine readable –Written according to standards “I guess it makes sense for a robot to read an e-book [401]” by brianjmatis on flickr

Make material findable Comprehensive descriptive metadata allows relevant material to be discovered more easily Related materials (eg other files) can be located

What to include Who created it, when and why Include: Description of the item Methodology Units of measurement References to related data Define: Jargon Acronyms Codes – provide a key Provide: Technical information about the file (may be generated automatically)

Who created it, when and why Include: Description of the item Methodology Units of measurement References to related data What to include (I) description n. A set of characteristics by which something can be recognised M. Farinelli et al. (2012) PLoS ONE 7(3): e34047

What to include (II) CC Gavin Llewellyn /gavinjllewellyn/ / Provide technical information about the file (may be generated automatically) Define jargon, acronyms and code

Explain it Create documentation to make data: –Understandable –Findable (and searchable) –Verifiable –Re-usable Explain: –Who created it, when and why –Methodologies and analysis techniques –Jargon, acronyms and code

Open Access Teaching Materials for Digital Preservation Produced by Anna Collins (2012) for the JISC- funded PrePARe project This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License