Role of Metadata in Enhancing Discoverability and Impact of Scholarly Research
Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize? Why was Pluto demoted from its planetary status? How does climate change affect marine biodiversity?
In our information-rich society, the answers to these questions (and many more) are just a click away. This also applies to the academic world with an influx of over 5 million new research publications entering circulation every year. In such a vast sea of information, a crucial question arises—how can publishers ensure that their content is easily discoverable for their readers? In the digital age, prioritizing metadata is a key strategic play to ensure enhancing content discoverability and accessibility.
Role of metadata
Metadata is essentially “data about data,” i.e. it provides important information about the content. In practical terms, metadata takes the form of tags or markers that efficiently identify and summarize the form and content of a resource. For example, some of the key metadata to be considered in a journal research article would be the title, author details, abstract, keywords, etc. This is the information that helps search engines and potential readers to find the content more easily. The metadata ecosystem is vast and complex, with data that flows through several different systems. Ensuring rich and accurate metadata at every stage is indispensable to creating a seamless experience for end users.
By optimizing metadata and ensuring its accuracy, publishers can increase the visibility and accessibility of their publication in an increasingly crowded online landscape. Think of it as the entity that tells search engines what a piece of content is all about, which makes that content easier to discover and access.
Why should scholarly publishers care about metadata?
1. Improves visibility, indexing, and retrieval
In scholarly publishing, metadata plays a crucial role in the indexing process. By providing this vital information publishers can help academic databases and search engines to not just retrieve articles but also with better organization and categorization, enhancing overall discoverability. This ensures that researchers and readers can easily find relevant articles when conducting a literature search or exploring a specific topic.
For instance, Google Scholar remains a popular search engine among researchers. And to make the most of this powerful tool, it is essential to utilize specific metadata tags. Google Scholar provides for more than 20 metatags, covering elements like journal title, article title, volume, publisher information, author details, etc. Following these metadata requirements is key as it directly influences the accurate indexing, ensuring better retrieval and visibility of research content on Google Scholar.
2. Enhances accessibility
With the publishing world's growing emphasis on accessibility, it is crucial for publishers to make effective use of metadata, given its crucial role in enhancing accessibility. By integrating Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) such as DOIs, URLs, and author ORCID IDs into the metadata, publishers can create a more seamless and accessible experience. Another metadata strategy that publishers can adopt to further improve accessibility is optimizing PDF files by enriching file properties with relevant metadata, a simple but impactful practice. Furthermore, by providing detailed captions and alt text for images, publishers can significantly aid individuals with visual impairments, ensuring better accessibility for all users.
3. Boosts relevance rankings
As readers look up published research materials in academic databases, the system does not just find the items related to the search terms but also ranks the search results by relevance. The way different algorithms rank the results vary, while taking numerous factors into consideration, one of the principal factors is metadata.
Depending on the appearance and frequency of the search terms in the article title, keywords, abstract, and full text will be a strong factor for the algorithm to determine the position of the source in the search results. Some engines may also give weightage to additional elements like publication year, number of citations, and views to bump up the document source in the rankings, making it easier for users to find them.
4. Promotes open access practices
The Open Access (OA) momentum continues to grow in the scholarly publishing industry, with more publishers and institutions entering into agreements to champion the transition to OA. However, a key factor in tracking the success of such agreements is the use of high-quality metadata throughout the research process. Establishing efficient systems to monitor and manage metadata, especially related to funding sources, agreements, and author affiliations is essential. This will ensure the continued advancement and impact of OA in scholarly publishing.
5. Supports FAIR data principles
The FAIR Data Principles represent a framework for ensuring digital assets are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. These principles, globally adopted by institutions, play a role in seamless data accessibility and sharing, fostering a more collaborative and interconnected research ecosystem.
Just like traditional research materials like articles, using detailed, accurate, and standardized metadata for research data helps with discoverability and reusability of the data.
Conclusion
Echoing the comments made by Randy Townsend, President of the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP), during the Copyright Clearance Center’s webinar on ‘The state of scholarly metadata in 2023: Insights from around the globe,’ stakeholders in the research community need to prioritize metadata integration from the outset, rather than treating it as an afterthought. Doing so is going to be significant in unlocking greater value throughout the entire publication lifecycle.
Despite the overall improvements in capturing metadata, stakeholders from different sectors of the research ecosystem recognize the challenges and gaps posed by the current system. A series of interviews conducted to understand the challenges faced by different stakeholders including researchers, librarians, publishers, and standards organizations uncovered several concerns that deter effective use of metadata in the scholarly system. They also emphasize the need for implementing consistent standards, PIDs, and tools, and effective workflows in creating and using metadata to transform how scientific research is shared and accessed.
Improving and streamlining metadata practices, and adopting interoperable systems can be a big step forward for the scholarly communication industry in enhancing research efficiency, impact, and discoverability.
Comments
You're looking to give wings to your academic career and publication journey. We like that!
Why don't we give you complete access! Create a free account and get unlimited access to all resources & a vibrant researcher community.
