Metadata Standards and External Resources deployed in the GCIS:

The GCIS conforms with well-established metadata standards and leverages external resources. A list of these is provided below:

Identifiers:

GCIS makes use of external identifiers such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), ORCIDs, ISBNs, ISSNs. ISBN resolution is handled through WorldCat. They may also utilize identifiers created for other aggregator systems, such as Data.gov identifiers. When GCIS must create its own identifier, it may utilize a Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) when no human-readable identifier is reasonable.

Provenance:

GCIS utilizes W3C provenance to represent some relationships inside the GCIS. In particular, GCIS utilizes PROV-O and CiTO verbs.

Technology:

GCIS is written in Ruby using the Ruby on Rails web framework, the Active Record Database interface, as well as the Vue.js frontend library. It relies on PostgreSQL for data storage.

Map inserts are supported by OpenStreetMap data with MapBox tiles and implementation through LeafletJS.

Data Export Formats:

GCIS offers a multitude of human- and machine-readable data export formats, defaulting with the HTML pages. Publication and list (index) pages can be downloaded as JSON and YAML or CSV data.

Metadata Quality Characteristics observed in the GCIS:

The Harvard Law School characterizes metadata as “electronic fingerprints”, that aid the searchability of documents or online resources. Therefore, good metadata records provide users with enough information to understand and (or) locate the object described in the record. There is a range of f qualities that make metadata records “good”. Nevertheless, GCIS metadata records strongly align with the following quality characteristics:

• Completeness : Is there enough information to facilitate findability?
• Conformance: Do metadata records abide by established standards?
• Credibility: Is the metadata based on trustworthy sources?
• Readability: Is the metadata record both machine and human-readable?

The GCIS is designed to aid users in their search for climate science information referenced in USGCRP products. The qualities above reflect this and thus, are central to the GCIS data model.