Product Keywords Tab

Discoverability is one of the most crucial aspects of open data. One of the simplest and most effective ways to increase the discoverability of your items is to assign the items appropriate keywords, also sometimes called 'tags'. Adding keywords to your metadata record allows the record to be found in search engines. The mdEditor application is designed using thesauruses that contain pre-determined keywords. These thesauruses create a 'controlled vocabulary' so that all staff adding metadata can adhere to the same standards, and future searches can consistently return similar results. Custom thesaurus are also an option.

Biota and environment are probably the relevant ISO topics for most FWS data products.

Because mdJSON metadata is based on the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) metadata standard, all LCC projects must select at least one ISO Topic Category. ISO topics were generally meant for spatial data so they might be a bit of a stretch, but do your best to find the best fit. mdEditor provides definitions of each ISO topic category if you hover over the ? icon.

ISO Topic Category (Required for spatial data)

Keywords

1. Click “+ Add Thesaurus” on the right to add the different thesauruses.

2. Add keywords from the following pre-populated thesauruses.

3. If none of the keywords in the following categories are sufficient for tagging your record, you can create a custom thesaurus (see below for more information).

Example ISO Keyword entry

GCMD Keywords (Required)

GCMD stands for Global Change Master Directory and these keywords are maintained by NASA. Look for useful keywords in the GCMD Science Keywords. There are GCMD Platforms and Instruments Keywords but they are unlikely to apply to SA products.

Best Practice: Check the "Full Path" checkbox to save the full path of the keyword to your metadata. This will maintain the category and context of the specific keywords chosen.

Custom Thesaurus

If any of your desired keywords do not appear in the existing thesauruses, you can add them via the custom thesaurus. Use a custom thesaurus only for keywords that are not available in an existing thesaurus.

You cannot add keywords to an existing thesaurus; you can only add keywords in a custom thesaurus.

You cannot save a custom thesaurus in mdEditor.

If you have a consistent set of keywords that you use across your projects or products, you could add these to a "template project" record in mdEditor and then modify the specific keywords you need for each entry. See the workflow section for more info about using template records or copying records.