Foundational Objects

Areas of coverage Technical objects Foundational objects Lessons learned from review of Use Case content Simple Study Simple Questionnaire First level extensions (Codebook content…)

Technical Objects Identification, versioning, reference, etc. Structures for strings Structures for dates Structures for controlled vocabularies Etc.

What is “Foundational” Objects required as basic parts of more complex constructions – Concepts, universes, categories, data element/represented variable Objects required for high level search and discovery – Citation, abstract, contents, coverage, etc.

Is it foundational? (could be a candidate) High level process metadata – Requirements for the process (inputs) – What the process entailed – Who did it – When was it done – Criteria for completion – Results (outputs) Organization and Individual information and relationships

Foundational Object Characteristics KISS principle: Keep it simple stupid – A Foundational object should have enough content to relay full basic useful information for a simple use case – Structured to serve as a base for extension Extension adds more detail to support more complex use cases

Review of Use Cases Discovery information for metadata AND data file – Citation – Abstract – Coverage Temporal (reference date and related subject) Topical (subject and keyword) Spatial (description) – For spatial search engines (bounding box, spatial object, lowest level and geographic date) Collection content – What things make up a study and how do they relate to each other

Review of Use Cases (cont.) Provenance – Who owns it – Where is it from – How did it change – Actors, Events, Objects – Who can access, how and when

Review of Use Cases (cont.) Simple data file – Variable Name Physical Location Data type Representation (valid and invalid-missing) Source Concept Universe

Review of Use Cases (cont.) Simple questionnaire – Population Universe Sample (frame, methodology, management) – Question Intent Text Response domain Sequencing (simple) Concept

Simple Case: Simple Study Description of a simple data set tying together the following content: – Data item (label, location, data type, etc.) – Basic discovery information – Universe – Concepts – Code lists

Simple Case: Simple Questionnaire Description of a simple questionnaire covering: – Simple questions (question intent, text, response) – Non-complex question flow – Information on the population responding to the questionnaire (universe, sample, weights, methodology, etc.) – Concepts

First Extension: Scope of the Codebook Case Elements most commonly used from existing profiles – CESSDA – ICPSR – IHSN This is for the description of a simple study First level extension from fundamental objects