Exploring metadata, communities, and new ideas. 

Metadata Game Changers

All scientific communities have been linking research together for many years using references to related work in articles. Recently these communities are exploring options for linking to datasets and software. As part of this effort, the CodeMeta Project recently proposed a vocabulary for metadata for code based on schema.org.

Metadata for Using and Understanding Software

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game ChangersFinding research objects that are related to a particular funder is one of the principal use cases for persistent identifier repositories in the global research infrastructure. Detecting objects related to funders is an important first step, but perhaps detecting objects related to specific awards is actually the “holy grail” of funder metadata.

Award Metadata @ DataCite

Ted Habermann and Erin Robinson, Metadata Game Changers During May 2025 we presented results of measurements of DataCite metadata completeness for four FAIR Use Cases: Text, Identifiers, Connections, and Contacts. We identified repositories who are succeeding at creating FAIR metadata despite facing challenges like those faced by the whole community.

DataCite Bright Spots – Repositories, Consortia, and Improvements

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game ChangersJargon and acronyms are well known culprits to understanding in the scientific literature and many scientific writing guidelines include “avoid jargon” and “spell out all acronyms”. One might expect that these guidelines would apply even more emphatically in the metadata realm, where the information space is prescribed and to some extent abbreviated.

Using Award Numbers to Check Funder Identifiers

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game Changers The recent description of work at Crossref creating a dataset of grant&lt;&gt;output relationships included a sentence that really struck me: “The percentage of relationships that are registered explicitly by Crossref members providing grants IDs in funding information has grown from less than 0.1% in 2023 to 1% (modest numbers but

 amazing growth

!)”. We are still in the early days of this

Crossref Metadata Evolution - 2019 - 2025

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game Changers Introduction The DataCite Metadata Working Group stewards the DataCite Metadata Schema and is an important starting point for adding capabilities to the schema and clarifying documentation. With their guidance, the schema has evolved considerably over the years.

Temporal Coverage for Awards, Instruments and Projects in DataCite

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2025). Connecting PIDs in DataCite Metadata, Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/6s7dv-5ds58.The Winter Meeting of the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) occurred on-line during January 2025.

Connecting PIDs in DataCite Metadata

Ted Habermann and Erin Robinson, Metadata Game Changers Cite this blog as Habermann, T. and Robinson E. (2025). DataCite Bright Spots. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/34brd-80j48Over the last decade DataCite has grown into a critical part of the foundation of the global research infrastructure, holding Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) and metadata for over 85 million research objects.

DataCite Bright Spots

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game Changers Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2025). DataCite Metadata Continues to Add Capabilities. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/wgret-2kd02 During 2021, I chronicled how the DataCite metadata schema had evolved to improve the capability to address many of the FAIR principles from 2011 to 2019 (Habermann, 2021). That discussion covered schema versions up to V4.3 which was released during late 2019.

DataCite Metadata Continues to Add Capabilities

Ted Habermann Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2025). How Many When (2025 Update): Dataset bright Spot in the Driver’s Seat. https://doi.org/10.59350/5p6kw-j0740Understanding how repositories are using DataCite and trends in that usage over time is important for the DataCite community and provides input for the DataCite Metadata Working Group.

How Many When (2025 Update): Dataset Bright Spot in the Driver's Seat

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2025). DataCite Facets and Metadata Completeness, Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/55etd-e8154.Background A facet is an item, often from a controlled list, that provides a count of records in a query result with particular values for the related metadata element and can be used to filter search results using that element.

DataCite Facets and Metadata Completeness

Ted Habermann (0000-0003-3585-6733, Metadata Game Changers Jamaica Jones (

 0000-0002-1969-2508)

, University of Pittsburgh Cite this blog as Habermann, T. and Jones, J. (2025). Data Journeys Through the Global Research Infrastructure. Front Matter.

Data Journeys Through the Global Research Infrastructure

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game ChangersJamaica Jones, University of PittsburghCite this blog as Habermann, T. and Jones, J. (2024). The Global Research Infrastructure and the NSF Public Access Repository. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/s2mgr-mwt45Understanding the impact of research funded by U.S. Federal agencies and other funders is an important, on-going task.

The Global Research Infrastructure and the NSF Public Access Repository

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game ChangersCite this blog as Habermann, T. (2024). Re-Curating the Gump South Pacific Field Station. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/zw0x7-dgk35.Introduction The Gump South Pacific Field Station is celebrating forty years of science in and around the island of Mo’orea in French Polynesia. During that time the field station has supported a vibrant community of researchers from all over the world.

Re-Curating the Gump South Pacific Field Station

Ted Habermann, Erin Robinson, Metadata Game ChangersCite this blog as Habermann, T. (2025). University and College Connectivity @ DataCite. Front Matter.

University and College Connectivity @ DataCite

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game Changers Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2024). Instruments@DataCite. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/8fjx7-y3229.Version 4.5 of the DataCite Metadata Schema, released during January 2024, includes several changes supporting the identification and description of instruments.

Instruments@DataCite

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2024). Projects@DataCite Revisited. Front Matter.

Projects@DataCite Revisited

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game Changers Cite this blog as: Habermann, T. (2024). Instrument Identifiers = Better Science. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/ehsbf-gwe11Measuring ocean temperatures accurately is a critical step towards understanding heat in the oceans.

Instrument Identifiers = Better Science

Ted Habermann and Erin Robinson, Metadata Game Changers Cite this blog as: Habermann, T. and Robinson, E., (2024). FAIR DataCite Metadata - University and College Bright Spots. Front Matter.

FAIR DataCite Metadata - University and College Bright Spots

Version 4.3 of the DataCite Metadata Schema released during August, 2019 included (among other things), the capability to provide persistent identifiers for affiliated organizations in the metadata (Dasler and deSmaele, Identify your affiliation with Metadata Schema 4.3, 2019). This capability builds on the work and enthusiasm generated by the ROR Community that has championed the concept of open organization identifiers for several years

Early Adopters of Organizational Identifiers in DataCite

I recently introduced a simple metric for measuring metadata collection completeness with respect to elements in the CrossRef Participation Reports. The suggestion of this metric immediately led to speculation about relationships between collection size and completeness. Small collections include fewer records – are they more likely to be complete? Publishers with large collections have more resources – do they have more complete metadata?

Metadata Evolution - Metadata Completeness, Agility, and Collection Size

Many datasets and products are documented using approaches and tools developed by data collectors to support their analysis and understanding. This documentation exists in notebooks, scientific papers, web pages, user guides, word processing documents, spreadsheets, data dictionaries, PDF’s, databases, custom binary and ASCII formats, and almost any other conceivable form, each with associated storage and preservation strategies.

Documentation or Metadata?

::::: {#block-4ce0cb5334f301eba820 .sqs-block .html-block .sqs-block-html block-type=“2” border-radii=“{"topLeft":{"unit":"px","value":0.0},"topRight":{"unit":"px","value":0.0},"bottomLeft":{"unit":"px","value":0.0},"bottomRight":{"unit":"px","value":0.0}}”}  Connecting research is a critical element of the DataCite vision and two kinds of connections are supported by DataCite metadata.

The Others

The road to complete and consistent metadata can be long and arduous – digging through piles of metadata and other kinds of data to find small gems of information that can be added to metadata records, contacting recalcitrant researchers to fill in blanks, slowly building content across a collection… Does it really need to be that hard?

Can Repositories Improve Metadata?

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2022). How Many When (All Time). Front Matter.

How Many When (All Time)

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2022). How Many When? Front Matter.

How Many When?

Martin Fenner from DataCite recently described the benefits of some standardization of sources for vocabularies used for three DataCite metadata elements: language, rights, and subjects. All of these elements:  can play important roles in the dataset discovery and selection processes at DataCite  are implemented using shared vocabularies that are identified by associated Scheme elements, e.g. subjectScheme, and  are optional.

DataCite Subject Metadata

In previous blogs we used DataCite metadata for UNAVCO to demonstrate how identifiers could be found and spread through the metadata collection to improve connectivity for people and organizations. The community built around UNAVCO over time was a critical part of this process as community members, both individuals and organizations, make many contributions over time.

Improving Domain Repository Connectivity: Article Metadata Archeology

Metadata schema evolution reflects the progression of needs, ideas, and practices of the community that creates and uses the metadata. Version 2.0 of the DataCite Metadata Schema was released ten years ago. During this time, the schema has evolved considerably, adding capabilities and supporting many new use cases.

DataCite Metadata: Evolving to FAIRness

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2022). Journal Connectivity@Dryad: The University of Chicago Press. Front Matter.

Journal Connectivity@Dryad: The University of Chicago Press

Looking for New Year’s metadata resolutions? How about:

 Stop using sentences that include the words “minimum metadata” without specifying a use case.

Sentences that include the words “minimum metadata” come up frequently in metadata discussions, usually in the context of what a data provider wants to provide or, even more common, in the context of what should be expected of them.

Minimum Metadata

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2022). Universities@DataCite. Front Matter.

Universities@DataCite

The Doe family consists of mother Jane and her son John. Identifying people and relationships is an important function of metadata. The ISO TC211 metadata standards provide a comprehensive framework for many important metadata use cases.

 Could ISO metadata be used to describe the Doe family?

ISO metadata describes objects with types and properties.

Understanding ISO Metadata - Objects and Properties

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2022). ROR in a Database. Front Matter.

ROR in a Database

The UNAVCO DataCite Repository has over 5000 records that describe datasets created by researchers from many organizations, all of which are members of the tight-knit and well-established UNAVCO community. In the first blog of this series, I proposed that connecting these organizations to the PID Graph depends on having unique identifiers, i.e., RORs, for these organizations.

Improving Domain Repository Connectivity: Identifying Organizations

A quick post about non-unique ROR Organization names. Many groups are interested in augmenting their affiliation metadata with RORs and it seems that a list of organization names is the right input to that process... Alas, we know that affiliations are a swamp filled with gotcha's. It turns out that an unexpected (really?) number of organization names resolve to multiple RORs. Actually, almost 800 of them!

Sometimes a Name is Not Enough

In honor of PIDapalooza 2021 and 25 hours of Persistent Identifier discussion happening today, we thought a post celebrating the power of PIDs for increasing connectivity and how to measure that connectivity is in order. Let’s party on 🥳 Discovery

 Before Conectivity (BC)

: For many years we have thought about discovery in terms of web portals with text search boxes, maps, timelines, facets, or some other kind of interface.

Power of PIDS: Measuring Connectivity

High-quality metadata can help users discover data and other resources in many ways. Good titles, abstracts, and keywords, along with spatial and temporal extents, go a long way with many search strategies. Adding schema.org metadata to landing pages can also help. A second discovery strategy, more like browsing, comes into play once someone finds something interesting.

Discovery Through Links

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game ChangersJamaica Jones, University of PittsburghHoward Ratner, Tara Packer, CHORUSIntroduction Cite this blog as Habermann, T., Jones, J., Ratner, H., Packer, T., (2024). Funder Acronyms Are Still Not Enough. Front Matter.

Funder Acronyms Are Still Not Enough

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2022). Need help searching for RORs? Try RORRetriever! Front Matter.

Need help searching for RORs? Try RORRetriever!

The scholarly communications and open science communities are getting excited about the benefits of metadata that includes persistent identifiers for organizations. Now that an open registry of organizational identifiers exists, the community is facing two adoption challenges: 1) evolving metadata dialects to include identifiers and 2) implementing them in existing and future metadata.

How Many RORs Do We Need?

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2022). DataCite Facets: Understanding DataCite Usage. Front Matter.

DataCite Facets: Understanding DataCite Usage

Ted Habermann and Erin Robinson, Metadata Game Changers Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2024). BrightSpots Get Brighter. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/prqvd-2f082.Introduction During June we discussed results of FAIR metadata assessments for 387 DataCite repositories associated with universities and colleges.

BrightSpots Get Brighter

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2023). Repository Re-Curation for Open Science. Front Matter.

Repository Re-Curation for Open Science

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game ChangersJamaica Jones, University of Pittsburgh         Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2024). Making the Invisible Visible: Celebrating the Year of Open Science. Front Matter.

Making the Invisible Visible: Celebrating the Year of Open Science

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game Changers Jamaica Jones, University of Pittsburgh Howard Ratner and Tara Packer, CHORUS          Introduction Cite this blog as Habermann, T. , Jones, J., Ratner, H., and Packer, T. (2023). CHORUS Data Journeys. Front Matter.

CHORUS Data Journeys

It is hard to believe that we are closing in on the last few days of 2023. It has been a busy, interesting year for us. For those following along on my Ph.D. journey, I’m doing it! I finished coursework in May and I passed my preliminary exam in October. All the things I am learning enrich our business and I love that research and our business are intertwined.

2023 Recap

Ted Habermann, Metadata Game ChangersJamaica Jones, University of PittsburghTara Packer and Howard Ratner. CHORUS         Cite this blog as Habermann, T., Jones, J., Packer, T., and Ratner, H. (2023). INFORMATE: Metadata Game Changers and CHORUS Collaborate to Make the Invisible Visible. Front Matter.

INFORMATE: Metadata Game Changers and CHORUS Collaborate to Make the Invisible Visible

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2023). How Many When (Update). Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/w1em6-nn888         It is natural to think about DataCite as a repository for identifiers that can be used to unambiguously identify and cite datasets, as that was the original DataCite mission. Last year, I took a look at the history of resourceTypes in DataCite and was surprised (pleasantly) by the number of Text resourceTypes.

How Many When (Update)

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2023). Responding to the Nelson Memo: Repository Re-Curation for Open Science. Front Matter.

Responding to the Nelson Memo:Repository Re-Curation for Open Science

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2023). ORCID Profiles – What’s There and Where Did It Come From? Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/ypxdr-ade49         The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is a community of over 120 colleges and universities doing research aimed at understanding our atmosphere, weather, and climate.

ORCID Profiles – What’s There and Where Did It Come From?

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2023). Project Metadata in DataCite. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/zwzvv-1n627         Introduction The DataCite Metadata Schema was developed to provide identification and citation metadata for a wide variety of resource types and it has been successfully used for many resource types for nearly two decades.

Project Metadata in DataCite

Cite this blog as Robinson, E. and Habermann, T. (2023). FAIR Island Experiments with Connecting Project Resources in DataCite. Front Matter.

FAIR Island Experiments with Connecting Project Resources in DataCite

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2022). ROR Identifiers That Have Disappeared. Front Matter.

ROR Identifiers That Have Disappeared

Cite this blog as Habermann, T. (2022). Metadata Life Cycle: Mountain or Superhighway? Front Matter.

Metadata Life Cycle: Mountain or Superhighway?

Research activities depend on monetary and other support from a wide variety of state and federal agencies, universities, foundations, and individuals.

Funder Metadata: Identifiers and Award Numbers

One of the exciting new capabilities in Version 4.4 of the DataCite Metadata Schema is the capability to create unique identifiers (DOIs) for Output Management Plans, i.e., resourceTypeGeneral = OutputManagementPlan. This new resource type recognizes that research outputs can include many kinds of resources beyond just data: journal articles, software, computational notebooks, presentations, etc.

Connecting DMPs and Research Outputs in DataCite Metadata

With Chris Beltz, S. Jeanette Clark, Peter Slaughter and Matt Jones from the Arctic Data Center (


 https://ror.org/055hrh286


 ) and NCEAS (


 https://ror.org/0146z4r19


 ).

I have written several blogs about measuring metadata with goals of identifying good examples and quantifying improvements in metadata over time.

Can Communities Improve Metadata?

Metadata Game Changers, the Center for Expanded Data Annotation and Retrieval (CEDAR) at Stanford University, and Dryad are thrilled to announce their joint National Science Foundation two-year EAGER award focused on increasing the quality of disciplinary metadata and bridging the gap between generalist and disciplinary data repositories.

Metadata Game Changers, Stanford University, and Dryad receive NSF Funding to improve metadata quality and connect repositories

I have been working on finding RORs from affiliation strings again and have been struck by the number of people that provide acronyms as affiliation strings. We all know the rule for using acronyms in scientific writing is “write out the first occurrence completely” so the reader knows what the acronym stands for and most of us try to follow this rule.

Acronyms Are Definitely Not Enough

The fundamental hypothesis being explored in this series of blogs is that identifiers of any kind, even if they occur just once, can be useful in domain repository metadata because individuals and organizations make multiple contributions to the repository and the corpus of scientific literature based on it. The goal of the work is to increase the number of identifiers in DataCite metadata associated with datasets created or archived at UNAVCO.

Improving Domain Repository Connectivity: Closing the Circle

We are thrilled to announce that Metadata Game Changers is partnering with Openscapes, housed at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis on a new NASA-funded, three year project!

Metadata Game Changers Partners with Openscapes in New NASA-funded Project

Most current metadata standards recognize that people and organizations play similar roles in the creation and management of datasets and other research objects. This dichotomy has been managed with the introduction of the concept of ‘party’ which, for example, could be a person, organization, or position in the ISO TC211 metadata standards for geographic data.

Improving Domain Repository Connectivity: Person or Organization?

As I have been working with domain repositories to understand and describe their practices and apply for Core Trust Seal certification, I have been struck by the close, long-term relationships that these repositories form with their communities.

Improving Domain Repository Connectivity: Establishing a Baseline

Last October I pulled together a list of organization names that occur multiple times in the ROR database. These non-unique organization names represent the most extreme case of the essential problem that RORs are trying to address, ambiguous affiliations.

Sometimes a Name is Not Enough - Update

We just finished 24 hours of PIDapalooza  last week with talks and demos and an amazing amount of information presented by PID experts and users all over the world. It was a truly international meeting happening all over the world with presentations and discussions in many languages.

A PID Feast for Research – PIDapalooza 2021

This post was first published on the


 DataCite blog


 on September 27, 2019.

Since Wilkenson et al., 2016 introduced the FAIR Principles, discussions and implementation guidelines have been published in almost every possible context.

MetaDIG recommendations for FAIR DataCite metadata

Last summer John Chodaki challenged me to develop something fun for a Metadata2020 presentation during the FORCE18 meeting in Montreal. I have always enjoyed games, so a collaborative game that could engage teams in the metadata creation process seemed like a natural candidate. There were many metadata geeks and lots of ideas about what such a game would look like.

The Metadata Game

In my last blog I introduced Metadata Archeology with a description of digging around in Crossref metadata for affiliations associated with authors of work published in the Dryad Data Repository. I showed how the Crossref Participation Reports could be used for an initial survey of Crossref metadata like satellite images are being used in the GlobalXplorer project to find ancient sites in Peru.

Metadata Archeology: Hunting Affiliations and RORs in DataCite Metadata

One of the interesting challenges encountered in the migration of Dryad metadata technology into the California Digital Library is the identification of organizations associated with the research data archived in the Dryad Repository. This information is not included in the original Dryad metadata, so digging around for it, i.e. “metadata archeology”, is required.

Metadata Archeology – Finding Affiliations in Crossref Metadata

The idea that the language we use to talk about things shapes the way we think or can think about those things has been around since the 1800’s and even has a name, the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, proposed during 1954.

Talking and Thinking About Metadata

I recently introduced a simple visualization of data from the CrossRef Participation Reports that provides quantitative insight into how completeness of CrossRef metadata collections with respect to eleven key metadata elements has changed between the backfile and the current record collections.

The Big Picture - Has CrossRef metadata completeness improved?

Over the last several years CrossRef has grown into one of the largest and most significant metadata repositories in the world. It contains over 100,000,000 registered content items and offers many services to help members and other users take advantage of that content. In addition to managing registered content, CrossRef makes links between resources. It is the connective tissue for the web of scholarly communications.

Metadata Evolution - CrossRef Participation Reports

California Digital Library (CDL) and Dryad recently announced a partnership to address researcher needs and to “move the needle” on digital data adoption throughout the scholarly research community by working together to understand and respond to researcher needs for high-quality scientific data publishing infrastructures.

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