1. (acknowledgements to Mary Mowat, BGS)
Re-using data-
MEDIN Data Guidelines
Roseanna Wright
(acknowledgements to Mary Mowat, BGS)

2. Why do we need MEDIN guidelines?
data
MEDIN
GUIDELINES
MEDIN know from bitter experience that, as time passes, assumed and unrecorded knowledge about the data gets lost
Without this knowledge, the data may not be easily re-used or cannot be re-used at all!
MEDIN Guidelines provide a framework for capturing the assumed and otherwise potentially unrecorded knowledge necessary to re-use marine data

3. What MEDIN data guidelines are…
They are best practice guides on archiving marine data:
They provide a list of information that should be collected with your data to ensure they can be re-used in the future.
What MEDIN data guidelines are not…
Protocols for collection methods
Prescriptive of how you have to collect and store your data
Metadata schema

4. Benefits of Data guidelines
Allow knowledge to be captured at time of data collection or immediately afterwards
Instill good practice amongst users
Good for contracting organizations and contractors – standard format to work to (rather than a different format for each contract)
Allow easy ingestion of data to Data Archiving Centres

5. One size does not fit all
Our data model has to encompass everything from a sighting by a member of the public to a complex cruise survey or a historical time series!
Guidelines are arranged by theme, tailored to different data collection methods and split into levels
Where possible levels work across
methods
Theming and splitting allows guidelines to be ‘bolted’ together in different ways if needed for complex surveys (e.g. where collecting data using different methods in a single survey)

6. Data Guideline Structure
3 levels:
General Metadata
Project
Survey
Detailed Metadata
Methods
Data
Station
Sample Event
Sample Data
Common to
all guidelines
Specific to
each guideline

7. 5. Methods

8. Data guidelines Downloads as zip file Always download latest
version from website

9. Data Guidelines
Summary
Check list
Detailed guidance

10. Data Guidelines
Summary
Check list
Detailed guidance

11. Data Guidelines
Summary
Check list
Detailed guidance

12. Data Guidelines
Summary
Check list
Detailed guidance

13. Data Guidelines
Detailed guidance

14. Data Guideline template

15. Data Files Data should be be QC’d before submission
Contact DAC if data not in a standard format
Raw and processed data accepted if clearly specified/useful
Don’t include duplicate/draft files - Ensure data is in final form
Data should be well organised – Standard folder structure
GIS/shape files can be included
(M Mowat, BGS, Nov 2016)

16. Summary MEDIN Data Guidelines
Best practice guides on archiving marine data
Data + Metadata
Flexible - Bolt Together
Collect Once – Use Many Times!

17. Guideline walkthrough

18. Guideline practical
Choose one example MEDIN dataset from options in next slide
Go to Data Guidelines page on the MEDIN website
Locate appropriate Guideline(s) for the data and download
Perform a checking exercise with the data
do you have all mandatory information?
What about the conditional and optional?
Are the data formatted for MEDIN compliance?
Try and complete a guideline using the selected data

19. MEDIN datasets
Open folder Guideline_Practical: Biodiversity: Download MEDIN Grab Core Guideline and complete using data found in raw dataset ‘Exciting_Rock_SAC_grab_data’ Bathymetry: Download MEDIN Bathymetry Guideline and complete using records in directory ‘HI362’ Alternative: Your own data