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I need to provide information about the quality of my data and how it was measured. |
A principle goal of metadata is to ensure that the data they describe can be independently understood and used effectively. Data quality measures and reports play a critical role in achieving this goal. Connecting these to the metadata record is clearly important.
The approach to including quality information in ISO 19115 metadata records is similar to the approach used in ECHO and improves on it considerably. It includes the capability to describe quality measures that are used and the techniques used to apply them. Understanding how to take advantage of this flexibility and implementing systems that maximize the value that this capability provides will certainly be a challenge for the environmental data community.
The Data Quality Section of the ISO standard supports flexibility at several levels. The DQ_Data_Quality object (see Figure) includes two sections: scope, and element. A metadata record can have any number of associated DQ_DataQuality objects.
The CI_Citation includes two required and eleven optional elements and introduces several new objects. The CI_Series object gives the name, issue, and page numbers of an article in a periodical. The ISBN and ISSN elements are internationally recognized identifiers for books and periodicals. The MI_Identifier and CI_Date objects are discussed below.
This section describes the UML structure of the quality metadata
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Second, CI_Citations provide information about external references that are related to the resource being described and provide additional documentation. This Figure shows most of the places where CI_Citations occur. Those shown in red were added in ISO 19115-1. In many of these situations the CI_Citation is in an object with a generally small amount of additional annotation information. This additional information is available to the user so they may not need to look up the resource cited in the CI_Citation. These objects are termed CI_Citation++.
The most straightforward member of this group is the MI_Identifier, which includes a code, the identifier, and a CI_Citation for the authority for the code. The MD_Identifier is used throughout the standard to attach a unique identifier to objects, including CI_Citations.
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Identifier
The MD_Identifier is the simplest of the CI_Citation++ objects. It includes a code and an authority. The code is an alphanumeric value identifying an object in a namespace that is maintained by the authority. In this case the CI_Citation cites the authority for the code. In many ways this is similar to the namespace for the code. It is the authority which understands and can explain or resolve the code. There is no agreed upon approach for how the namespace is described in the CI_Citation.
ISO 19115-1 addresses this limitation by adding a codeSpace field to the MD_Identifier object. The codeSpace field unambiguously defines the namespace for the identifier. ISO 19115-1 also includes description and version fields in the MD_Identifier object. The description field enables a brief description of the code to be documented, and the version field enables the the Identifier version to be documented.
//gmd:MD_IdentifierReference System Identifier
The RS_Identifier extends the MD_Identifier by adding a codeSpace and a version for the namespace. These additions address the lack of an agreed upon approach for describing a namespace using the authority/gco:CI_Citation alone. However, the standard only supports RS_Identifiers in the referenceSystemInfo class.
Note: In ISO 19115-1 the RS_Identifier object is replaced with an MD_Identifier object which includes codeSpace, version and description fields. See the MD_Identifier description above.
//gmd:RS_IdentifierKeyword Thesaurus Citation
The MD_Keywords object is similar to an MD_Identifier in that it gives a keyword that is unique in a "namespace" that is maintained by the individual or organization cited in the thesaurusName. In this case, the type codeList is used to group related keywords.
Note: In ISO 19115-1, 10 additional GCMD keyword type codes have been added to the codelist. These codes will help improve consistent data discovery, particularly using faceted searches.
/gmi:MI_Metadata/gmd:identificationInfo/gmd:MD_DataIdentification | srv:ServiceIdentification/gmd:descriptiveKeywords/gmd:MD_Keywords/gmd:thesaurusNameAlgorithm Citation
Conformance Standard Specification Citation
Source Citation
Data Quality Evaluation Procedure Citation
Feature Catalog Citation
Application Schema Citation
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As described earlier, codeLists provide shared vocabularies throughout the ISO Standard. The fact that these vocabularies are shared makes it possible to use them as well known tags for content in the standard. An excellent example of this occurs in the CI_Date object that gives dates for CI_Citations. That object includes a date string and the CI_DateTypeCode codeList that can be either creation, publication, or revision. This single date, along with the codeList, covers three common types of dates that are required in citations. Contrast this with the editionDate attribute that is a single date the purpose of which is expressed in the name of the attribute rather than with a tag.
The ISO 19115 CI_Citation object works well for citing physical objects (books, articles, scientific papers, etc), but is not well suited for referencing online digital resources. These important resources can only be associated with a CI_Citation using a rather circuitous path: //gmd:CI_Citation/gmd:citedResponsibleParty/gmd:CI_ResponsibleParty/gmd:contactInfo/gmd:CI_Contact/gmd:onlineResource and it is not at all clear that a URL in the contact information for the citedResponsibleParty is actually the URL for the resource being cited. In short, the ISO 19115 CI_Citation does not work well for citations to online resources.
ISO 19115 -1 has addressed this shortcoming by adding an OnlineResource field to the CI_Citation object. Also included in the 19115-1 revision is the BrowseGraphic field for referencing online images.