Print publications such as theses, books and journal articles often contain an abstract or summary which describes the content succinctly. The abstract helps a reader decide whether the publication is likely to meet their needs. Descriptions of collections, activities, parties or services in the RDA Registry perform the same function, as well as providing searchable text for search engines.
A Description Type is required. Preferably specify a type from the following Description Type vocabulary. Local types may also be used and are appropriate for recording important descriptive elements from the source metadata which are not present in RIF-CS, but which are essential to add context to the metadata.
Type | Explanation |
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brief | short account for selection purposes. |
full | full account (The difference between brief and full descriptions is not governed by formal criteria but is contextual. The same amount of storage space is provided for both). |
lineage | text describing the collection lineage such as process steps and source data used. |
note | a brief informational message, not object metadata, to notify the record consumer of some important aspect regarding the object or its metadata. |
deliveryMethod | (services only) information about how the service is delivered. Should be one of: 'webservice', 'software', 'offline', 'workflow'. |
fundingAmount | (activities of type 'grant' only) The total amount of funding in Australian dollars approved by the funder for this particular research grant. It can also be used for activity records of type 'project' or 'program' supplied by a research institution or agency, where it would contain the total project budget if this information is available. |
fundingScheme | (activities of type 'grant' only) The funding scheme under which the research funding was awarded. |
researchers | (activities of type 'grant' only) The list of persons participating as a Chief Investigator, Partner Investigator or Fellow (to be used only if the nature of the grant information supplied to the RDA Registry prevents the creation of linked related party records for these researchers). |
significanceStatement | (collections only) a statement describing the significance of a collection within its domain or context. Provides context to the collection and can assist researchers and other users in assessing the value of the collection. |
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The language in which the description metadata is recorded may be included in the Lang attribute, but is not displayed or searchable in Research Data Australia. The RDA Registry accepts language codes consistent with IETF's BCP (Best Current Practice) 47: Tags for Identifying Languages (incorporating RFC 5646). Language codes may be selected from:
All descriptions are displayed and are searchable.
Good quality descriptions will increase the chances of a record being discoverable through search engines, as well as helping researchers decide if it is likely to be useful for them. The following principles are recommended:
XHTML formatting can be provided for text in the Description element to support better display in Research Data Australia.
<description type="brief" xml:lang="en">Data collection tracking the long term movement of fish and sharks in the Logan and Albert River with a primary focus on the influence of water flows.</description> <description type="full" xml:lang="en">Information was collected on the movement patterns of fish and elasmobranchs in Logan River and Albert River as well as southern Moreton Bay, using an underwater sensor array. Acoustic tags with individually unique sound signatures were implanted into 80 teleost fish and elasmobranchs. A network of acoustic receivers recorded and stored the date and time of individual animals, which was used to monitor their movements. The majority of the receivers were based in the Logan and Albert River system, but a smaller number were also deployed within Moreton Bay.</description> <description type="note" xml:lang="en">The contents of this collection are dynamic and will change over time as more data is deposited.</description> |
<description type="full">The JKLM catalogue contains descriptions of items held in the JKLM Archive of Goldfields Manuscripts which documents life on Australian goldfields during the late nineteenth century. All 18,000 manuscripts are described, and digitised images of 3,000 manuscripts and 1200 photographs are available to the public on the archive's searchable website. The catalogue includes all names mentioned in manuscripts, to support genealogical research. The archive contains documents, photographs, drawings and maps created in the X, Y and Z goldfields between 1880 and 1905, and is located in the town of JKLM.</description> |
<description type="brief">This Public Open Space (POS) distribution browser is a web based Geographic Information System (GIS) POS data dissemination and data visualisation tool. The tool will provide access to output data from a new POS spatial layer and data on POS attributes and/or amenities. These will include access to basic descriptive data that summarises and characterises POS, and the level of service they provide.</description> <description type="note">This service currently covers Perth Metropolitan and Peel Region.</description> <description type="deliverymethod">Software</description> |
<description type="brief">Biodiversity faces an unpredictable cocktail of impacts and global environmental change, against which the best insurance is genetic diversity. We will develop genomic measures of ecological-genetic functions and evolutionary potential for managing Australian freshwater fish.</description> <description type="fundingAmount">$445,000</description> <description type="fundingScheme">Linkage Projects</description> <description type="researchers">Sunnucks Dr Paul J; A/Prof Mark Lintermans; Dr Carla M Sgro; A/Prof Luciano B Beheregaray; Prof Fred W Allendorf; Mr Jarod Lyon; Dr Gordon Luikart</description> |
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