Metadata links to the "original" (complete/authoritative/operational) metadata for a data asset

[johnd-im]

Creator Name: John Davidson Creator Affiliation: Contractor, Department of the Interior/ CDO

Requirement(s)

Metadata must support the ability to explicitly reference or cite a downloadable instance of the "original" or more complete, authoritative, or supplemental metadata document for a Dataset. The reference/citation must also specify the schema standard (e.g., CSDGM, ISO 19115) and mime type/format (e.g., XML) of the cited "original" metadata document.

Problem Statement

1. The DCAT vocabulary does not support all the metadata detail that legacy standards such as FGDC CSDGM or ISO 19115-1/2/3 standards do.
2. Operationally, metadata for datasets have been captured and maintained for many years using, for example, FGDC CSDGM or ISO 19115-1/2/3 schema. These metadata continue to be the primary metadata record maintained along with referenced dataset asset.

Target Audience / Stakeholders

User 1. Producers of data and metadata User 2. Developers of software applications for creating/updating and searching/accessing metadata User 3. Data consumers who need to see, for example, fully documented lineage and provenance or the methodology for ensuring quality of the dataset in order to determine its fitness for use.

Intended Uses / Use Cases

UC-01. Once discovered, access the full metadata record for the dataset in order to determine it's suitability for use.

Existing Approaches - Optional

The "DOI Profile of DCAT-US 1.1" specifies that reference to "original" metadata is on $.dataset. distribution where:

• $.dataset. distribution.title must be literally "Original Metadata”
• $.dataset. distribution.downloadURL must be specified
• $.dataset. distribution.mediaType must be set (e.g., “text/xml”)
• $.dataset. distribution.conformsTo must be specified (e.g., for CSDGM, “http://www.fgdc.gov/schemas/metadata”)

Additional context, comments, or links - Optional

A requirement of the DOI's "Application Profile of DCAT-US 1.1" metadata specification.

[fellahst]

The DCAT-US 3.0 profile introduces a new dcat-us:metadataDistribution property on dcat:Dataset with range dcat:Distribution class with properties mandatory properties:

• dcat:downloadURL
• dcterms:title
• dcat: mediaType - the encoding of the source metadata (e.g., XML, JSON, other)
• dcterms: conformsTo - reference to schema specification/ standard for the source metadata