Making research data visible through public metadata
With public metadata, your research data becomes easier to find, use, and reuse. Making key metadata open access is one of the foundations of open science (FAIR principles) and part of good data management. The openness of metadata also promotes research collaboration, citizen science, and the merits of researchers.
Public metadata is not tied to the openness of the research data itself. Publishing metadata is especially important when the data itself cannot be made openly available. Public metadata can also be used to meet the recommendations or requirements of research funders and open science policies (Tampere higher education community, national and international policies) regarding the opening of key metadata.
How do I create and publish metadata?
You can create public metadata using the Qvain research dataset description tool for example. Metadata created with the Qvain tool becomes publicly available in the Etsin service. You can also save the metadata in TUNICRIS. The library always checks the metadata stored in TUNICRIS before publication. If you store your research data in a data repository, the metadata will be published together with your dataset.
Public metadata for research data consists of three components: content information, access rights, and identifiers. Content information (e.g., title, authors, abstract, data type, keywords, subject, discipline, date of data collection) helps other users find and understand the purpose of the data. Access rights information describes ownership and how the data can be used (authors, contact details, ownership, terms of use, licences). Identifiers enable citation and referencing (persistent identifiers, date, language, format).
You can use these Guidelines for describing research data to support metadata creation.
The library supports and harvests
The library supports the discoverability and visibility of research data produced at Tampere University by collecting (harvesting), reviewing, and publishing metadata in TUNICRIS. Metadata saved or harvested into TUNICRIS is published in the public TUNICRIS portal after verification. Published metadata is then transferred automatically to the national open Research.fi -portal.
Tip: Increase the visibility of your dataset by making more efficient use of the Data Availability Statement (DAS) in your research article or other publication. In the DAS, you can indicate where your data is stored, how it can be accessed, whether there are any conditions for use, and who can provide more information. Many journals already include the DAS in their publication process.
Guides
Researcher's guide to responsible and open science: Data Management
Finnish Social Science Data Archive Guide
Text: Kaisa Kylmälä
Translation: Piatta Hellevaara
