EXPLAIN ITWHY 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

www.flickr.com/photos/smutjespickles/2434418686/

Make material understandable

What’s obvious now might not be in a few months, years, decades…

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/archer10/5692813531/

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: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/4588700881/

• 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

www.texample.net

• 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. F

arinelli et al. (2012) P

LoS O

NE

7(3): e34047

What to include (II)

CC Gavin Llewellynhttp://www.flickr.com/

photos/gavinjllewellyn/6826303487/

• 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.