Metadata quality evaluation of a repository based on a sample technique

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate the quality of the metadata of an OAI-compliant repository based on the completeness metric proposed by X. Ochoa and E. Duval. This study focuses on the completeness of the metadata records as defined by M.A. Sicilia et al, where machine-understandability is a mandatory requirement for completeness. The goal is to use the completeness metric as a tool for harvesters and repository managers to evaluate easily the quality of the metadata of a repository. We focus on the metadata used by the communities of agriculture, aquaculture and environment from the VOA3R project. The OceanDocs repository serves as a use case. The completeness metric is used on a sample of records from the repository. The paper concludes that in the opinion of the authors quality evaluation is not a global process, but depends on the context. The completeness metric have to be used on the specific elements, relevant for the specific community. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.