Agricultural sciences is the latest addition to the research area profiles in DORIS and the SND research data catalogue.
“Thanks to this new profile, data can be described in as much detail as possible, which makes it easier to find and reuse them,” says Ida Taberman, domain specialist in climate and environmental data and one of those who have developed the new research area profile, or metadata profile.
There have long been plans at SND to develop a specific metadata profile for agricultural sciences, partly to follow the standard for the Swedish classification of research subjects from SCB (Statistics Sweden). This standard includes six overarching scientific fields: humanities and the arts; agricultural and veterinary sciences; medical and health sciences; natural sciences; social sciences; and engineering and technology.
Collaboration between SND and SLU
“I’m glad that we’re working together with our domain specialists and with organizations in the SND network to develop our metadata profiles. The profile for agricultural sciences is somewhat of a mix of our profiles for climate and environment, and natural sciences, and it’s the result of a collaboration between SND and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,” says Sara Svensson, responsible for SND’s DORIS and the research data catalogue.
Some of the information that is central to data in the agricultural sciences are collection methods (such as sampling, trials, or experiments), instruments, and the geographical unit to which the data are bound. DDI is used as the metadata standard in the new profile, which enables exchange of information to Dublin Core and DataCite Metadata Schema. The subject profile also covers one of the thesauri adapted for the agricultural sciences, in this case Agrovoc.
An overarching profile
“The new profile for agricultural science is at a high level, which is sufficient for describing data through a general repository like SND. For more detailed metadata and descriptions for specific research subjects within the field, there are more specialized repositories that can be found via r3data,” says Ida Taberman.
Work on developing a specific subject profile for veterinary medicine has been initiated within SND in collaboration with the Swedish Veterinary Agency and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Work on creating a subject profile for humanities and the arts will also continue. The goal is to complete both of these projects within the year.
Link to the documentation for the Agricultural Sciences metadata profile.