Open Data Policy Guidelines » Guideline 13

13. Require publishing metadata

Providing a common and fully described core metadata scheme (as well as other documentation) can be useful for the public and government alike. A strong metadata scheme takes its lead from common international meta attributes (such as DCAT), and allows data publishers to classify contextual fields or elements within their datasets. Commonly defined fields for such notations not only provide helpful context about the data’s creation, quality and uses, but also help automate discovery mechanisms at the granular level, serving both government interoperability and the public discovery process.

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