Ecological Metadata Language (EML) is a
metadata standard
A metadata standard is a requirement which is intended to establish a common understanding of the meaning or semantics of the data, to ensure correct and proper use and interpretation of the data by its owners and users. To achieve this common unde ...
developed by and for the
ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...
discipline. It is based on prior work done by the
Ecological Society of America
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...
and others, including the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. EML is a set of
XML schema
An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself. These constra ...
documents that allow for the structural expression of
metadata. It was developed specifically to allow researchers to document a typical data set in the ecological sciences.
EML is largely designed to describe digital resources, however, it may also be used to describe non-digital resources such as paper maps and other non-digital media.
The Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity project has developed a software client specifically to address this need. Morpho
[
Higgins, D, C Berkley, and M Jones (2002) Managing heterogeneous ecological data using Morpho. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Scientific and Statistical Database Management, July 24–26.] is data management software intended for generating metadata in EML format. Morpho is part of the
DataONE
DataONE is a network of interoperable data repositories facilitating data sharing, data discovery, and open science. Originally supported by $21.2 million in funding from the US National Science Foundation as one of the initial DataNet programs ...
Investigator Toolkit, and therefore intended to facilitate data sharing and reuse among ecologists and environmental scientists.
References
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External links
KNB-EML webpageKnowledge Network for BiocomplexityMorpho PortalDataONE
Ecological data
Metadata standards