Metadata schemas define metadata elements and the rules for using these elements to best describe a resource according to the user community needs. (7)
Metadata standards often start as schemas (8). They group metadata elements into sets designed for a specific purpose, including for example rules on what content must be included, what syntax must be used, or controlled vocabularies to apply (9). The standardization of metadata schemas helps to ensure consistency in metadata application and facilitates the interoperability of resources as well as their discoverability, and reusability (10).
Sources:
(7) Atla LibGuides. Digitizing Collections: Metadata Schema [Internet]. 2022 [cited 2023 Dec 15]. Available from: https://atla.libguides.com/digitizing-collections/metadata-schema
(8) UNC University Libraries. Metadata for Data Management: A Tutorial: Standards/Schema [Internet]. 2023 [cited 2023 Dec 15]. Available from: https://guides.lib.unc.edu/metadata/standards
(9) How to FAIR. Metadata [Internet]. [cited 2023 Dec 15]. Available from: https://howtofair.dk/how-to-fair/metadata/
(10) Breytenbach A, Smith I, Groenewald M.E. Metadata put into practice: applications for preservation and retrieval purposes, using the Qualified Dublin Core metadata schema [Internet]. 2007 [cited 2023 Dec 15]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/2823
More information about RDM fundamental concepts can be found in our slide deck “NFDI4Health Online Training Workshop on Research Data Management in (Bio-)Medicine”.