Research Data Management

An important part of making your data interoperable and reusable (the I and R in FAIR) is to use standardised metadata and descriptions. It is therefore useful that you adopt standard identifiers and classifications throughout your data and metadata. The CESSDA Vocabulary Service curates an updated list of relevant controlled vocabularies, among which you would find some of the following:

Factual information

• Dates: ISO 8601
• Languages: ISO 639 has many versions. Use 639-1 unless you require more specific metadata.
• Countries and their subdivisions: ISO 3166
• Names: Library of Congress Name Authority File
• Places: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
• Various: Wikidata

Description of contents

• Keywords: CESSDA ELSST Thesaurus (European Language Social Science Thesaurus)
• Topic: CESSDA Topic classification
• Subject: ICPSR Subject Thesaurus
• Subject: Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
• Subject (medical): National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
• Subject: Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS)
• Field of study: ISCED Fields of study classification

Collection methods (DDI metadata)

• Analysis unit: DDI controlled vocabulary for analysis unit
• Time method: DDI controlled vocabulary for time method
• Sampling: DDI controlled vocabulary for sampling procedure
• Mode of collection: DDI controlled vocabulary for mode of collection
• Type of instrument: DDI controlled vocabulary for type of instrument
• Data source type: DDI Controlled Vocabulary for Data Source Type