Metadata Tips

Metadata Tips

When you deposit material into UDSpace or provide material for a community manager to deposit, you will be asked to provide metadata. Effective metadata helps your work be findable and usable by others. Don’t get sloppy with metadata! It’s easier to get it right early on than it is to clean up bad metadata later.

UDSpace metadata uses the Dublin Core Metadata Element set, which is used internationally to describe a wide range of resources. Many internet tools and platforms rely on Dublin Core metadata in order to recognize and display content effectively, in platforms like Google Scholar and beyond. Developing custom metadata schemas in UDSpace communities and collections is not recommended as it may interfere with your material being displayed correctly. 

The metadata fields that you will be asked for are as follows. HTML is not permitted in any of these fields.

  • Author: Multiple authors can be added. For works of corporate authorship, leave this field blank.
  • Title: The main title of the item.
  • Other titles: Use this for alternate titles, rather than subtitles.
  • Date of issue: For publications, use the official publication date. For conferences, use the date of the presentation or conference. If necessary, use only the year, and leave the month and date blank.
  • Publisher: Use both the journal title, if applicable, and the publisher name. For example, to submit an article published in the journal Transactions on Quantum Engineering, it would be appropriate to enter “IEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering” or “IEEE.” For a book chapter originally published in an anthology from the Oxford University Press, enter “Oxford University Press.”
  • Citation: Enter the citation that you wish to be used when the content you are depositing is cited.
  • Series/Report No.: If the content is part of a named and numbered series, use these fields, otherwise leave blank.
  • Identifiers: Some publication types include a separate unique identifier, including the following:
    • ISSN: International Standard Serials Number: Used to identify and distinguish different journals. For more info, see ISSN.org
    • ISMN: International Standard Music Number: Used for notated music (scores, parts, vocal scores, etc.). For more info, see the U.S. ISMN agency
    • Gov’t Docs #: Identifiers used in the federal Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) classification system
    • URI: Uniform Resource Identifier: Used to refer certain types of resources
    • ISBN: International Standard Book Number: Assigned to individual books and ebooks. For more information, or to obtain an ISBN, visit Publisher Services at isbn-us.com.
  • Type: A list of several common document genres, including article, book chapter, book, dataset, presentation and thesis.
  • Language.iso: Select the primary language of the material that you are depositing.
  • Keywords: Most journal and book publications today will ask authors to generate up to five subject keywords to be associated with their article or book. Those same keywords can be used in this metadata section. Enter the keywords (or keyword phrases) one at a time, clicking to add each one after you have entered it. Keywords are case-sensitive, meaning that “Dance” and “dance” will be treated as separate keywords in the UDSpace interface, though not by most search engines. Though UDSpace provides a controlled vocabulary (listed as a hyperlink to “Subject Categories”), we do not recommend using it. If the material you are depositing does not have specific keywords, you can enter your own — simply think of words or phrases that are associated with the research in your article. You may add more than five keywords.
  • Abstract: A short paragraph describing the content that is being deposited. For journal articles and book chapters, use the version from the official publication.
  • Sponsors: List any funders or other sponsors here, i.e., the NIH, NEH, etc.
  • Description: Any additional information can go here. If you are depositing a pre-print or post-print publication, this field can be used to include a link to the version of record at the journal or publisher main website.