Describing Data: A Review of Metadata for Datasets in the Digital Commons Institutional Repository Platform: Problems and Recommendations

ABSTRACT Digital Commons is a popular hosted solution for institutional repository creation in academic libraries. The platform enables libraries to create customized digital collections representative of their institutions, which can include research data. As increasing numbers of academic libraries seek to provide research data services to their communities, institutional repositories are used for archiving of research data. Digital Commons users are no exception. This article explores data collections in Digital Commons and evaluates their associated metadata. Digital Commons offers no standard metadata format for datasets. A review of data hosted in Digital Commons repositories found that there is a need for a standardized language in describing research data within Digital Commons Institutional Repositories.