Understanding perceptions and use of metadata among early career researchers: A qualitative study

Metadata plays a key role throughout the data lifecycle, enabling researchers to discover, understand, and reuse their own and others’ data. Despite its importance, metadata is rarely included in university courses, with little formal training on the topic, thus engagement with metadata standards such as DDI becomes challenging. As such, the utility of metadata and its role in supporting FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data practices is not fully realised in the research community. Existing metadata training typically reflects what metadata experts think the audience’s needs and knowledge gaps are. To better align with the audience’s requirements, CLOSER - the UK’s interdisciplinary partnership of leading social and biomedical longitudinal population studies - is developing metadata training directly informed by users. CLOSER is conducting qualitative research via interviews with UCL master’s and PhD students to explore early career researchers’ understanding of metadata, their experiences of using and/or creating it, and their awareness of FAIR and metadata’s role in FAIR. This poster will share preliminary findings from the interviews and discuss how these insights are directly informing the development of CLOSER’s metadata training, ensuring it is effectively tailored to and resonates with its intended audience.