Page 307 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 1

IPS155 Stefan B. et al.
2. The INEXDA metadata schema
2.1 Scope
The INEXDA metadata schema is designed to provide metadata for
microdata on the dataset level. Since microdata are data at the level of
individual reporters, the data may allow re-identification of individual
reporting units. Because of its sensitive nature, microdata is therefore always
subject to protection of confidentiality for individual observations. Metadata
about microdata also has to adhere to the same high standards when it comes
to protecting confidentiality.
The INEXDA metadata schema is based on the da|ra metadata schema
(Version 4.0) which was jointly developed by GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the
Social Sciences and ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (Koch
2017). da|ra operates a registration service for social science and economic
data which allocates a Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) to different types of
datasets, allowing a unique identification of resources (https://www.da-ra.de).
da|ra maintains a cooperation with DataCite (https://www.DataCite.org).
Adapting an existing metadata schema to fit the purpose of INEXDA
provides a level of standardisation for microdata coming from different
countries, institutions, and collection purposes. In addition, the
interoperability with the da|ra schema allows for a seamless transition between
the INEXDA and da|ra databases, which makes it easier to obtain a DOI
identifiers in the future. However, ensuring interoperability may also result in
restrictions on altering metadata items (see section 2.2).

2.2 Metadata items
All INEXDA members agreed on a metadata schema, which, on the one
hand, describes the datasets in a sufficient way for the purposes mentioned
above while, on the other hand, being easy to handle for potential users or
data producers. Therefore, the INEXDA network came up with 21 items (see
Table 1), which we describe below in more detail. For each metadata item, we
also provide an example drawn from Bundesbank datasets to illustrate its use.
Please note that you will find the example after the description of the item.
These examples are written in italics.

Resource Type: A description of the underlying resource for which
metadata is compiled. In case of INEXDA, the resource type is always a
dataset. This item is included in the INEXDA metadata schema to facilitate
interoperability with the da|ra schema.
Resource Identifier: The "Resource Identifier" is a unique value to
disambiguate between resources. A version number can be provided as a
reference that changes have been made between versions.
Name of Dataset: This item displays the name of the dataset.

296 | I S I W S C 2 0 1 9