Metadata Reference

Do not be discouraged by the input mask. There are only a few mandatory fields in our repository, which are specially marked here. The use of the remaining fields is voluntary. With each additional entry you present your research results better and make it more accessible for others. In general, it is better to fill in less fields with more care than to use many fields in a hurry, which may contain misleading information.

We recommend specifying the metadata belonging to the research data in German or English. You should decide which one to use depending on your target group.

Basic Information

Title (mandatory)

The title is the main description of your publication under which it will be listed later. It is the headline of your publication in the repository.

Abstract

Here you can describe your publication in several sentences or even paragraphs. You can format this text. Keep in mind that users have to click a button to view the full description. You should list the most important information as concisely as possible at the beginning, so that it can be read without clicking. Information about the data structure of your publication or references to other web pages should not be included here, but in the separate fields provided for this purpose below. The description will be displayed under the title of your publication.

Language (mandatory)

Select the languages you used for your research data (not metadata) here. For language-neutral data, we recommend specifying English. If the language you used is not among the choices, feel free to contact us.

Type of Resource (mandatory)

Specify here what type of data you are publishing. Select Mixed if your publication contains different types of data (e.g. images and tabular data). Data Set describes homogeneous data (e.g. a .csv file), Database describes heterogeneous data (e.g. a SQL dump with multiple tables). Furthermore, there are more specific values to choose from (e.g. for geographic maps). If none of the values fits, select Other.

SDNB (mandatory)

Specify here to which subject area your data belongs. The scheme of the German National Library is used for this.

Keywords

Here you can specify keywords that make your publication easier to find. To specify multiple keywords, you can add more fields using the + button on the right side and then enter one keyword per input field. Optionally it is possible to use the Search... button to create a link to a subject term in the schema of the German National Library. However, this only works if the keywords are entered in German. If you specify your metadata in English, it may make sense to additionally include German keywords here and link them like this.

Institution

Here you can select the university's institution under which this publication should be grouped. This determines the display in the institution index of the repository. The specification is optional. If you miss an institution in our repository that is listed on the official university web presence, please feel free to contact us.

Persons

In this section you can specify one or more persons (or corporations) involved in this publication. The following functions are available for the basic control of this input mask, all of which can be found to the right of each name field:

  • ^ opens or closes the detail view belonging to the person
  • + adds another person below
  • - removes the person
  • ↑ moves the person up in the mask and the display sequence
  • ↓ moves the person down in the mask and the display sequence

To the left of each name field you can specify the role of each person. You must specify the authors. The remaining roles are optional.

  • Author (mandatory): Primary role. These persons are displayed in the repository directly next to the title and are also primarily mentioned in exported metadata.
  • Creator: Creators are not shown next to the title in the repository, but in the detail view with the other metadata. They are nevertheless considered authors of the DOI and (depending on the target system) are included as authors in most metadata exports.
  • Publisher: With the publication in our repository, Kiel University is the publisher of the publication. This is noted automatically and does not need to be entered explicitly. Therefore, you should not normally enter a publisher.
  • Other Roles: Annotator, Collector, Contributor, Data Contributor, Interviewer, Metadata Contact, Reviewer, Owner, Other. These roles are shown in the detail view with the other metadata. Depending on the target system, they may or may not be included in metadata exports - but always subordinate and not as an author.

The input methodology is identical for all these roles:

Display Name

The display name is the field just to the right of the role. It specifies how the name will be displayed in the repository. Please specify this name in the format last name, first name - e.g. Doe, Jane. This requirement does not apply if the person is not a natural person. But then you have to change the type from Person to Corporation as described below.

Academic titles can be included in several ways:

  • If you do not want to include a title, then simply enter the display name without it (Doe, Jane).
  • If you want the title to be displayed on the publication page, then include it with the first name in the display name (Doe, Prof. Dr. Jane). In this case we recommend to specify later in the detail view exactly which part of the name belongs to the title (see below).
  • If the title is not to be displayed on the publication page, but should still be included in the metadata, specify the display name without the title (Doe, Jane) and add it later in the detail view under the name (see below).
Linked IDs: University of Kiel's Research Information System, ORCID, GND, etc.

It is possible to link each person's identity to other systems:

  • University of Kiel's Research Information System (FIS): Creating this link will result in the metadata of this publication being automatically transferred to the FIS, where it will appear with your other publications. This is a purely administrative process behind the scenes and no publicly visible link will be displayed in the repository (but it will be displayed in the FIS itself).
  • ORCID: Creating this link will result in your name in the repository having a publicly visible link to your ORCID profile. Your ORCID ID will also be included in some metadata exports. In particular, the DOI is also linked to it.
  • GND: Creating this link will result in your name in the repository containing a publicly visible link to your record at the German National Library. The associated ID will also be included in some metadata exports. In particular, the DOI is also linked to it.
  • Other Providers: More providers may be supported with various levels of integration.

All types of shortcuts are created in the same way: First, enter the display name as described above. To the right of the name is a gray field labeled Search. Click on it and wait until the results of the various providers appear. You can either import the entire hit including the name by clicking on the blue checkmark, or add individual IDs by clicking to blue + next to them. If you do not find the person you searched for in the result list, try searching without academic titles or use alternative spellings (e.g. without special characters).

You can check the added IDs in the detail view by clicking the passport icon to the right of the display name. As an alternative to the search function, you can also enter the IDs there manually.

The following fields belong to the detail view of each name. You may need to reveal this section first using the ^ button next to the display name:

Type

Specify here whether the name is a natural person or a corporation. The display names of corporations do not have to be specified in the format last name, first name. The default value is person.

Surname, Forename, Terms of Address

These fields specify in detail which component of the display name has which function. Normally, they are automatically derived from the display name after saving and do not need to be filled in manually. Only if the name contains academic titles, we recommend specifying these details manually. With the buttons on the right margin you can add new fields (e.g. in case of multiple first names), or change the order of the fields. Always stick to the field order Surname, Term of Address 1, Term of Address 2, ..., First name 1, First name 2, ... and enter academic titles in the Term of Address fields. E.g. for Doe, Prof. Dr. Jane:

  • Surname: Doe
  • Terms of Address: Prof.
  • Terms of Address: Dr.
  • Forename: Jane

In exactly this order.

Affiliations

Here you can specify to which organization this person belongs (e.g. institute and group). This information can be viewed on the publication page in the repository and is also associated with the DOI and other export formats.

Remark on E-Mail Addresses

Email addresses are often bound to the employer / enrollment and are not permanent. Therefore, there is currently no possibility to enter them in the metadata. If you'd like to add some specific contact information, we recommend the following alternatives instead:

  • Link your ORCID profile and keep it up to date. You can add mail addresses and contact links there and manage them autonomously even after a change of employer.
  • Add a web link (see below) to a special contact page of your institution that is kept up-to-date.
  • If these variants are not viable, upload an appropriately named file with your contact info in the next step together with the research data (e.g. CONTACT.txt).

Dates

Created at

Indicates when the dataset (not the metadata) was created. This is not the date of the measurement (see Date of Collection below), but the date of the subsequent creation of the dataset itself. Specify this value in ISO format. You can also specify only the year or only the month without the day: e.g. 2022-10-20 (exactly October 20th, 2022), or 2022-10 (in this month), or 2022 (in this year). You can also specify a time period by clicking the white arrow on gray background to the right of the field.

Date of Update

If adjustments were made after the record was created, the last modification date can be specified here. Use an ISO date again, as for Created at.

Date of Collection

If the data set is based on a recording process (e.g. an actual measurement), you can specify the date here. Use the ISO format again, as for Created at. Here, too, you can convert the field into a time period.

Dates Covered from / to

Here you can specify the time period about which this data set makes a statement (e.g. population history of the years 1400-1500). You can leave the from date blank for an "up to" statement. If the data set refers to exactly one point in time, please enter the same value for from and to.

Dates A.D. can be specified as in the previous fields in ISO format with month and day (including shortened forms like 2022-10).

Dates B.C. are also given as ISO dates, but can only include years, not months or days. For example:

  • for the year 1 B.C. please enter the ISO year 0.
  • for the year 100 B.C. please enter the ISO year -99 accordingly
  • month and day values must be rounded to whole years

Note that when your publication is displayed later, the ISO years will be converted again from ISO to B.C. format. For long approximate time spans, you should take this into account: for example, enter -9999 so that 10,000 B.C. is displayed for visitors (and not -10000, which would be displayed as 10,001 B.C.).

Rights

License Holder

You can clarify here which persons or institutions have the copyright to the data. This information is displayed to visitors next to the license.

License (mandatory)

Select here the license under which you are releasing the research data to the public (the associated metadata you are currently entering is always CC0-licensed according to our terms & conditions). There is more information about licenses available on a separate page.

Embargo

You have the option of placing your research data under embargo. After publication, only the metadata will be publicly viewable at first. The uploaded research data only becomes publicly accessible starting with the embargo date entered here. You can also change the embargo date later after publication - but only as long as it has not yet expired. In addition, we will generate a private link not subject to the embargo, which you can pass on to reviewers, for example.

Project Information (OpenAIRE)

If your data publication is related to a project listed on OpenAIRE, you can enter its name here. A search result list will be displayed automatically. When you click on the correct hit, all values in this section will be filled in automatically, making it easier to link the publication to OpenAIRE. Alternatively, you can fill in the detail fields manually. For projects not listed on OpenAIRE, please use the next section.

Project Information (other)

For projects not listed on OpenAIRE, you can enter their ID or name in a free text field here, which will later also be displayed with the publication.

Other Metadata

Data Structure

You can describe the structure of the research data in more detail here. This is a suitable place to include technical information that is too detailed for the abstract. This could be, for example, included data fields, character encoding, etc. If your data structure requires even more elaborate documentation, we recommend adding a separate file (e.g. .pdf) to your research data after metadata entry instead of using this field.

Geographic Place

If the research data refers to a geographical location, you can enter the place names here. Several place names can be created using the + button on the right side. This can be useful e.g. to represent hierarchies (e.g. Germany, Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel). With the Search... button you can link the ID of the German National Library to each place name and make your data easier to discover. However, this only works if you use the German spelling for the place names. If you enter your metadata in English, it may be advisable to enter the place names bilingually to enable this link.

Geographic Coordinates

If the research data refers to a geographical location, you can also enter the specific coordinates. Only the specification of the coordinates leads to the inclusion of your publication in the map view of the repository and enables users to find the dataset there.

The easiest way to add the coordinates is to select them in the interactive map. To do this, click the OpenStreetMap button next to the input field. Then navigate in the map to the location in question. You can now select either a point, a box, or a free polygon. Select the appropriate geometry type above the map and click to add the points.

If your dataset refers to multiple locations that are not too far apart, simply select the covered area and add multiple location names in the previous field. Alternatively, check if it makes sense to split this publication.

On a technical level, your coordinates will be stored as a WGS84, EPSG 4326 tuple with the format Longitude1 Latitude1, Longitude2 Latitude2, ... and the dot as decimal separator.

External

External Link

Here you can create web links that will be listed with the metadata of your publication. Enter the title to be displayed and the URL (https://...) below it. With the + button you can add more links.

Identifiers: DOI, Handle, URN, URI

If your dataset already has a pre-existing identifier, you can enter it here. Please note: If you enter your own DOI here, the repository will not register a new DOI. Normally, you should not enter a DOI, as the repository will automatically generate and add it at the time of publication.

If you enter your own identifier, please make sure that the research data you add to this repository is really the exact same version described by the identifier in other systems.