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5. Documenting External Resources
Good Practices for Completing External Resource Metadata
The External Resources section is used to document and describe materials that are related to a dataset, study, project, or data collection but exist outside the primary data files. These resources may include questionnaires, data collection instruments, interviewer or field manuals, reports, publications, methodological documents, technical papers, tabulations, maps, training materials, codebooks, data processing guidelines, and other supporting documentation that provides additional context for understanding and using the data.
External resources are typically documented using the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) standard, which provides a simple and widely adopted framework for describing digital resources. DCMI is a compact metadata standard used here to describe related resources such as questionnaires, manuals, reports, scripts, photographs, and maps.
Key metadata elements include:
- Resource title
- Creator
- Publisher
- Date
- Description
- Subject
- Language
- Format
- Access location or URL
External Resources
Resource Description
| Field | DDI Element | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Label | label | Hyperlink label. | Household Questionnaire |
| Resource | resource | Link to resource. | documentation/questionnaire_household.pdf |
| Type | type | Resource type. | Document Questionnaire |
| Title | title | Resource title. | Household Questionnaire |
| Subtitle | subtitle | Resource subtitle. | Wave 1 Education Module |
| Date Created | date | Creation date. | 2024-06 |
| Format | format | Digital format. | |
| Description | description | Resource description. | This is the education module of the household questionnaire for the survey... |
| Abstract | abstract | Resource abstract. | |
| Table of Contents | tableOfContents | Table of contents. | CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION |
Creators and Contributors
| Field | DDI Element | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author(s) | creator | Resource authors. | National Statistics Office |
| Contributor(s) | contributor | Resource contributors. | World Bank |
| Publisher(s) | publisher | Resource publishers. | National Statistics Office |
Coverage and Language
| Field | DDI Element | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | country | Covered country. | Uganda |
| Language | language | Language used. | English |
Identifiers and Rights
| Field | DDI Element | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ID Number | idno | Document identifier | A DOI if one exists |
| Rights | rights | Usage rights. | © 2017, Popstan Central Statistics Agency |
Subjects
| Field | DDI Element | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects | subjects | Resource subjects. | Sampling; Questionnaire design; Fieldwork; Data processing |
Why is This Important?
- Documenting external resources helps preserve valuable contextual information that may not be captured within the data files themselves.
- It enables users to locate, access, and understand supporting materials that provide important information about the data, its production, methodology, processing, quality, and intended use.
- Well-documented access and rights information provides users with a clear understanding of who can access the resource, under what conditions, and any restrictions governing its use, redistribution, or reuse.
- Comprehensive documentation of external resources improves the discoverability of data and related materials in catalogs and repositories.
- It supports long-term preservation by ensuring that critical documentation and supporting resources remain linked to the data over time.
- Well-documented external resources also enable automated tools, search systems, and metadata platforms to connect datasets with the documentation required for accurate interpretation, analysis, reproducibility, and reuse.
Importing External Resources
When documenting external resources, you will need to organize your resources in your local folder by resource type following the folder structure described in Organizing Your Files section.
Some resources might be composed of more than one file (for example, the CSPro data entry application includes multiple files that should not be separated). In such cases, zip them into one single file, and import it as a single resource.
For documents available in multiple formats (for example, a questionnaire available in Excel and in PDF), you may create two separate resources, or zip the files into one single file. In such case, list the different formats available in the "Content/ Description" field.
Best Practices - Naming Convention for External Resources
- Use file names short, but self-explanatory about the content of the document.
- Preferably, use lower cases.
- Avoid spaces to delimit words.
- Be consistent with your method of naming across all files. For instance, if you use underscores to delimit words, keep it that way in all files.
- Use only alphanumeric characters, underscores or dashes. Avoid using special characters (!@#$%^&*()~) or any accented characters.
- If you intend to have an archive useable and downloadable across multiple countries, use English names for your files.
The Metadata Editor documentation provides guidelines under Documenting Data → Microdata → Import and Document the Dataset → External resources on how to import and document your resources in the Editor.
Once the data and external resources have been documented, it is essential to conduct a quality assessment before the metadata are stored, published, or shared. Metadata quality review helps ensure that the documentation is complete, consistent, accurate, and compliant with applicable metadata standards, thereby improving discoverability, interoperability, and long-term usability.
The next section explores metadata quality assessment and presents some recommended approaches, tools, and techniques that can be used to evaluate and improve metadata quality.