In a global information system such as FAO AGRIS, metadata quality determines whether agricultural research can be discovered, reused and connected across regions, languages and disciplines.

FAO AGRIS relies on the quality, consistency and completeness of the metadata provided by institutions to maintain one of the world’s most comprehensive agricultural research databases. Well-structured metadata supports FAIR principles — ensuring that information is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable — and helps scientific knowledge reach students, researchers, policymakers and practitioners worldwide .

In line with FAO’s mandate to support Member States through free access to high-quality scientific agricultural scientific information , this metadata quality toolkit aims to support repository managers, librarians and information management specialists in strengthening metadata practices that improve discoverability, interoperability, reuse and global access to agricultural knowledge.

What is metadata?

Metadata is structured information that describes a resource. In the context of FAO AGRIS, metadata provides essential information about publications, datasets, reports, theses or other scientific resources indexed in the system.

Typical metadata elements include:

• title,
• author,
• publication date,
• language,
• abstract,
• keywords,
• publisher,
• identifiers such as DOI,
• and rights information.

Why metadata quality matters in FAO AGRIS

FAO AGRIS harvests metadata from data providers worldwide using interoperable standards such as OAI-PMH. Poor metadata quality can directly affect whether records are properly indexed and discoverable.

High-quality metadata helps:

• improve search accuracy,
• increase visibility in web search engines,
• support multilingual discovery,
• facilitate interoperability between systems,
• reduce duplication and ambiguity,
• and improve long-term preservation and reuse of research outputs .

In contrast, incomplete or inconsistent metadata may result in:

• records not being harvested correctly,
• broken interoperability,
• poor visibility in searches,
• missing authorship or institutional attribution,
• or difficulties identifying the resource itself.

The importance of Meaningful Bibliographic Metadata (M2B)

FAO AGRIS strongly recommends that data providers refer to the Meaningful Bibliographic Metadata (M2B) recommendations available through the Linked Open Data Enabled Bibliographical Data (LODE-BD) 3.0 framework.

These recommendations help institutions identify which metadata elements required to  create meaningful, reusable and interoperable bibliographic records.

The objective is not simply to expose metadata, but to ensure that the metadata is sufficiently descriptive and standardized to support discovery and reuse across platforms and languages.

Metadata in multilingual environments

FAO AGRIS is a multilingual database containing resources in up to 250 languages. Metadata records may therefore be provided in the local language of the institution or repository.

There is no requirement for metadata to be translated into English, however, FAO AGRIS strongly recommends including:

• English titles,
• English keywords,
• and/or English abstracts, whenever possible. 

For many institutions, adding English metadata fields is one of the simplest and most effective ways to increase the discoverability of scientific outputs.

Mandatory, recommended and optional metadata fields

FAO AGRIS distinguishes metadata elements according to their level of importance. 

Mandatory fields

• Title
• Date
• Language

These elements are essential for correctly identifying and indexing a resource .

Recommended fields

• Creator
• Identifier
• Format
• Source
• Location
• Subject
• Abstract
• Rights

These fields significantly improve metadata quality, discoverability and interoperability.

Core metadata elements explained

Title: The name given to the resource.

Whenever available, English translations can improve visibility internationally.

Creator: Entity responsible for creating the resource.

Consistent author naming helps:

• attribution,
• citation tracking,
• and institutional visibility.

Date: The date associated with the resource.

This information is essential for:

• citation,
• chronological organization,
• and identifying publication or version history .

Identifier: A unique reference associated with the resource.

Examples include:

• DOI,
• Handle,
• URI,
• accession numbers.

Persistent identifiers are strongly recommended because they support long-term access and interoperability.

Language: The language of the resource.

Accurate language tagging is particularly important in multilingual repositories and international search environments.

Subject: Thematic descriptors describing the content.

Using controlled vocabularies such as AGROVOC can further strengthen interoperability.

Abstract: A summary of the resource.

Including English abstracts when possible substantially increases visibility beyond local contexts.

Rights: Information regarding copyright or access conditions.

Clear rights metadata supports:

• open access transparency,
• and responsible dissemination practices.

Common metadata quality issues

Some of the most common problems identified in harvested repositories include:

• missing mandatory fields,
• inconsistent formatting,
• duplicated metadata,
• incomplete abstracts,
• broken identifiers,
• incorrect language tagging,
• non-standardized author names,
• and missing rights information.

Even technically accessible repositories may experience low visibility if metadata quality is weak.

Metadata quality as a visibility strategy

Metadata should not be understood solely as a technical backend process. It is also a visibility strategy.

In many cases, the quality of metadata determines:

• whether research appears in searches,
• whether it can be reused,
• and whether international audiences can discover it.

For repositories participating in FAO AGRIS, metadata quality directly contributes to the broader goals of:

• open science,
• interoperability,
• accessibility,
• and global agricultural knowledge sharing.

As agricultural challenges increasingly require international collaboration and evidence-based responses, high-quality metadata becomes an essential part to ensuring that scientific knowledge can move effectively across systems, regions and languages.