---
type: concept
title: Data and Metadata Standards
tags: [interoperability, research-data, metadata]
related: [fairsharing-org, daten-management-plan-dmp, forschungsdaten-managen]
created: 2026-06-30
updated: 2026-06-30
sources: ["output/rz_uni_greifswald_de_dienste_studium_lehre_forschungsdaten_managen_dmp_daten_man.md", "output/rz_uni_greifswald_de_dienste_studium_lehre_thementag_forschungsdaten_2022_themen.md"]
---

# Data and Metadata Standards

**Data and Metadata Standards** are established guidelines and formats used to structure research data and its descriptive information (metadata). The primary goal of these standards is to ensure **interoperability**, allowing data to be easily discovered, accessed, and reused by other researchers and systems.

## Metadata
**Metadata** is defined as "data about data" used to describe research datasets in a way that makes them usable by others.

### Importance in Research
For research data to be truly useful after its initial creation, it must be:
- **Searchable**: Metadata allows users to find the data via search engines or catalogs.
- **Findable**: Standardized descriptions ensure the data can be located independently of the original researcher.
- **Citable**: Proper metadata allows other scientists to cite the dataset correctly in their own work.

## Implementation and Resources
The selection of appropriate metadata standards is a critical step in the [[forschungsdaten-managen]] process and is typically documented in the [[daten-management-plan-dmp]].

The [[universitatsrechenzentrum-urz]] points researchers toward [[fairsharing-org]] to explore these standards and understand how they relate to specific data policies and databases.