Metadata collection at microscopy research facilities: Overview and recommendations

Metadata play a fundamental role in making research data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) by enhancing the discoverability, sharing and reuse of research data. They also increase confidence in the validity of the data by supporting research reproducibility. However, collecting metadata at microscopy facilities in a way that is sustainable and systematic has often proven challenging. The main barrier has been the inability to extract information from the various systems used by facilities (for example, for instrument booking). Many of these systems are part of the ecosystem of infrastructures provided by the universities that house facilities. In this report, five recommendations are proposed to foster best practices in metadata collection at microscopy facilities. These recommendations are based on the interviews of four university-based, microscopy research facilities. They focus on five key elements: 1. the choice of metadata schema; 2. the minimum set of metadata that every facility should at least collect; 3. the publication of metadata; 4. how facilities can collect metadata; and 5. how institutions can assist facilities in collecting metadata. This work was undertaken under Work Package 4: “Big-data electron and correlative microscopy from instrument to publication” of the Australian Characterisation Commons at Scale (ACCS) project