Supplying Catalogue Record and Other Information
To help users find data in CEDA archives it is important that we have correct information about the data. This includes information about dataset itself, like a description and the geographic area covered by the data, but also information about the instruments or model used to create the data and other project background. These details can be sent via a text file with the data. We will assume a file in the top level of the delivered dataset with the name metadata.yaml contains the details of the dataset, project and instrument or model.
You can either use this simple metadata file creation utility, or edit one of the examples below:
example dataset details YAML file.
station-data_metadata_example.yaml
instrument_metadata_example.yaml
Adding the information this way helps us keep the record and the data together even if its supplied over non-web based channels like FTP.
Other useful information
Besides the information areas covered in the above links it is also helpful to provide the following types of information to CEDA to help curate your data for long-term use:
- links to useful websites
- script to read in/plot the data
- documentation related to particular data formats
- copies of project logos
- photographs of instruments and sites where the instrument is deployed
- calibration information
- links to related articles
For fixed content these can be uploaded to our CEDA Document Repository Zenodo Community for long-term archiving which can then be linked up to from the relevant data catalogue records for data in the CEDA archive. These are items that users control themselves and can easily update with new versions if required. Zenodo also automatically issues DOIs for these items allowing greater traceability and reliable connections.