Describing Data in Image Format: Proposal of a Metadata Model and Controlled Vocabularies

Abstract

Research data management (RDM) includes people with different needs, specific scientific contexts, and diverse requirements. The description is a big challenge in the domain of RDM. Metadata plays an essential role, allowing the inclusion of essential information for the interpretation of data, enhances the reuse of data and its preservation. The establishment of metadata models can facilitate the process of description and contribute to an improvement in the quality of metadata. When we talk about image data, the task is even more difficult, as there are no explicit recommendations to guide image management. In this work, we present a proposal for a metadata model for image description. To validate the model, we followed an experiment of data description, where eleven participants described images from their research projects, using a metadata model proposed. The experiment shows that participants do not have formal practices for describing their imagery data. Yet, they provided valuable contributions and recommendations to the final definition of a metadata model for image description, to date nonexistent. We also developed controlled vocabularies for some descriptors. These vocabularies aim to improve the image description process, facilitate metadata model interpretation, and reduce the time and effort devoted to data description.