A readme file provides information about a data file and is intended to help ensure that the data can be correctly interpreted, by yourself at a later date or by others when sharing or publishing data. Standards-based metadata is generally preferable, but where no appropriate standard exists, for internal use, writing “readme” style metadata is an appropriate strategy.
* Recommended minimum content for data re-use is in bold.
* Recommended minimum content for data re-use is in bold.
* Recommended minimum content for data re-use is in bold.
* Repeat this section as needed for each dataset (or file, as appropriate) *
Source | Content | URL |
Getty Research Institute Vocabularies | geographic names, art & architecture, cultural objects, artist names | http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/ |
Integrated Taxonomic Information System | taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, microbes | http://www.itis.gov/ |
NASA Thesauri | engineering, physics, astronomy, astrophysics, planetary science, Earth sciences, biological sciences | https://www.sti.nasa.gov/nasa-thesaurus/ |
GCMD Keywords | Earth & climate sciences, instruments, sensors, services, data centers, etc. | https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/find-data/idn/gcmd-keywords |
The Gene Ontology Vocabulary | gene product characteristics, gene product annotation | http://geneontology.org |
USGS Thesauri | agriculture, forest, fisheries, Earth sciences, life sciences, engineering, planetary sciences, social sciences etc. | https://apps.usgs.gov/thesaurus/ |
The preceding guidelines have been adapted from several sources, including:
Good Data Practices. Dryad. 2022. https://datadryad.org/stash/best_practices
Introduction to Ecological Metadata Language (EML). The Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120424124714/http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/eml_metadata_guide.html