# Materials metadata: as a custom schema, as directories, or in a data package

https://mdr.nims.go.jp/datasets/c59fca58-3a47-43dc-8c65-20776b858792

## Files

- [RDA_VP15_poster_v4.pdf](https://mdr.nims.go.jp/filesets/e69426d2-1971-4758-bc9e-11d7b7118f9a/download) ([Detail](https://mdr.nims.go.jp/filesets/e69426d2-1971-4758-bc9e-11d7b7118f9a.md))

## Id

c59fca58-3a47-43dc-8c65-20776b858792

## Local identifier



## Visibility

open_to_public

## State

published

## Created at

2021-08-05T16:24:09.824609Z

## Updated at

2025-03-27T08:32:22.751956Z

## Published at

2021-08-12T16:20:03.838659Z

## Doi

https://doi.org/10.48505/nims.3031

## First published url

https://www.rd-alliance.org/materials-metadata-custom-schema-directories-or-data-package

## Date published

2020-03-18

## Recorded date published

18/03/2020

## Resource type

conference_poster

## Manuscript type

authors_original

## Collection

- id: 4c070d39-be60-43e2-b0ae-62b0b5c79824
  identifier: https://mdr.nims.go.jp/pid/4c070d39-be60-43e2-b0ae-62b0b5c79824
  title: The history of DICE and NIMS Digital Library

## Title

- title: 'Materials metadata: as a custom schema, as directories, or in a data package'
  title_type: original
  lang: en

## Description

- description: "Metadata for a research dataset can be about the dataset's bibliographic
    properties as well as their scientific properties. The scientific metadata are
    bound to be domain-specific. In materials science, it may describe what measurements
    were performed on which specimen using which instrument in what kind of environment.
    We defined an original schema to describe these, along with other methods which
    are covered later.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nMaterials science is a syncretic field of study,
    and creating a widely-accepted standard to describe the materials-science metadata
    is challenging. Our JSON Schema is designed primarily for messaging and data relaying
    among the systems in our materials data platform (data collection, management,
    repository, etc.). It features a hierarchical structure to describe several different
    types of resources (instruments, specimen, processes, properties, and computation)
    or combinations thereof. It is partially inspired by the Materials Data Vocabulary,
    which was one of the outputs of the RDA International Materials Resource Registries
    WG. We have been developing the platform systems to generate/interpret this format.
    However, the complexity of the hierarchical structure has caused difficulties
    in implementing the model to some systems. Also, user feedback indicated that
    for some researchers, the complex form mirroring the structure of the schema could
    feel burdensome. We also found out that datasets may contain multiple parts where
    different metadata apply, which cannot be accurately described as long as only
    one metadata is attached per dataset.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe second method is the
    directory-based metadata collection. In cases where the structure of the metadata
    can be stably defined beforehand, we can design a system where the researchers
    are requested to save their data in a pre-defined file hierarchy, which can then
    be interpreted by another system. A simplified version of this idea was tried
    out as part of a semi-automated data collection system in our institute and has
    received generally positive feedback from researchers. We are expanding the same
    principle to one of our closed repositories, currently in development under the
    codename \"MDR-X\" (Materials Data Repository-X), which will deal with even greater
    variety of materials data. This approach has the benefits of being easy to operate
    for the researchers and that it can be used in an environment with limited network
    connectivity, a common situation in materials laboratories. Relative lack of flexibility
    could be a weak point of this approach.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nMeanwhile, it is becoming
    increasingly popular to describe metadata using files in a data package, typically
    using JSON or other lightweight formats. In particular, RO-Crate is a data packaging
    approach based on Schema.org, where metadata is written in JSON-LD. (Schema.org
    focuses on structured data for web resources, but RO-Crate has extended the use
    cases for more general-purpose metadata description.) We anticipate that this
    approach can potentially provide a solution to the problem where parts of the
    datasets require different metadata. The life sciences community has been actively
    developing Bioschemas as an extension to Schema.org. For materials science, NIST
    has recently published a pre-alpha version of Material Schema on their website.
    We believe RDA is a great place to concert these kinds of domain-specific schema
    developments. \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThis poster aims to share the issues we have encountered
    in implementing materials metadata and promote discussion on scientific metadata
    efforts."
  description_type: abstract
  lang: en

## Creator

- name: MATSUDA, Asahiko
  role: author
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5989-027X
- name: TANABE, Kosuke
  role: author
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9986-7223
- name: KADOHIRA, Takuya
  role: author
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0569-1309
- name: TANIFUJI, Mikiko
  role: author
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5284-6364

## Contact agent



## Publisher

organization: Research Data Alliance

## Managing organization



## Keyword

- subject: materials informatics
  schema: not_defined
- subject: data platform
  schema: not_defined
- subject: metadata
  schema: not_defined

## Rights

- description: Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 International
  identifier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

## Other identifier(s)



## Data origin



## Embargo



## Journal



## Conference



## Related item



## Funding



## Instrument



## Instrument operator



## Instrument managing organization



## Measurement method



## Specimen



## Chemical composition



## Structure for specimen



## Structural feature for specimen



## Specific property for specimen



## Process for specimen treatment



## Computational method



## Energy level/transition state



## Software



## Custom property



## Fileset

- id: e69426d2-1971-4758-bc9e-11d7b7118f9a
  filename: RDA_VP15_poster_v4.pdf
  content_type: application/pdf
  size: 1114779
  md5: 3f7396aefb1abab3af7f8e5cac7883c8

## Thumbnail

fileset_id: e69426d2-1971-4758-bc9e-11d7b7118f9a
filename: RDA_VP15_poster_v4.pdf