Plans for study-level metadata production at FSD

The Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD) is enhancing its study-level metadata production to ensure a smoother information flow. This improvement is based on two revamped systems: the data depositing tool in the Aila data portal (currently being implemented) and the operational data management system TIIPII3 (already in production). Aila and TIIPII3 metadata tools are implemented utilizing e.g. Python3, lxml, RESTful APIs and AMQP messaging with RabbitMQ.

The data depositor will provide most of the contextual study-level metadata using the data depositing tool. Due to GDPR regulations, the data depositing tool may not be used for long-term preservation. When the data deposits are removed from the depositing tool, the study-level metadata will be exported as a DDI 2.5 XML file in Finnish. This exported file will then be enriched with additional information first manually by the metadata curator and then using TIIPII3 (such as series information and related publications) and saved as an XML file in the TIIPII3 file system.

For our international customers and collaborators, we also produce study-level metadata in English. TIIPII3 provides automatic translations for many metadata fields, but some require manual translation. The English metadata is also saved in the TIIPII3 file system as a DDI 2.5 XML file. DDI 2.5 XML is our long-term preservation format for metadata. When study-level information changes in TIIPII3, the XML files in both languages are automatically updated accordingly.