DATA DOCUMENTATION AND METADATA
A crucial part of creating a good dataset with long-lasting usability is ensuring that the data are easy to understand and analyse. This requires accompanying data description and documentation that is user-friendly, clear and detailed, yet comprehensive.Producing good data documentation is easiest when planned from the start of a project and considered throughout the course of research (during the data lifecycle). Advanced planning can significantly reduce the time and money needed to prepare documentation.
For datasets formally archived at the UKDA, each data collection is accompanied by three types of user-oriented documentation:
- study-level providing information on study and data collection methods and data context in the form of a user guide
- data-level with a variable list and variable-level documentation (survey and quantitative data) or data listing (qualitative data)
- catalogue record with structured core metadata, and used for resource discovery and bibliographic referencing, including primary and secondary outputs
Staff at the UKDA compile this documentation and metadata from material almost entirely provided by the researcher/data depositor. The depth and quality of data descriptions provided by the depositor are thus critical. Depositors are encouraged to offer as much contextual and methodological information as possible to compile a user guide, which will usually be available as a bookmarked PDF file via the main catalogue record alongside the dataset.
A final report of a research project often contains the majority of contextual and methodological documentation for data. Additional documentation may be contained in publications, working papers, laboratory books, etc. Certain data documentation can be embedded within a dataset itself, especially variable-level documentation. This ensures that the documentation is not separated from the data themselves.
