Towards a standard for the description of historical datasets

Several countries are planning a data-archive facility for historical datasets. In the archives the data will be extensively documented. A standardized way of describing the machine readable datasets will facilitate the exchange of information. The Standard Study Description Scheme used at the long existing social science data-archives is - in unaltered form - not applicable to historical datasets. There are many similarities between social scientific datasets and historical datasets. It is useful for historians to use a documentation standard that can be exchanged with the standards in use at social science data-archives. At the same time the specific demands of the historical datasets should be taken into consideration