Main Tab

Project Records

The Main tab allows for the creation and/or editing of primary metadata.

Main Tab

Metadata Field	Project Records
Basic Information
Title	Required^*
Status	Required^*
Default Locale	Required
Resource Type	Required
Points of Contact
Point of Contact	Required
Custodian	Required
Administrator	Required^*
Administrative Region	Required
Principal Investigator	If Applicable^*
Co-Principal Investigator	If Applicable
Citation
Title	Required^*
Dates (multiple)	Required^*
Responsible Parties (multiple)	Required^*
Online Resource
Name	If Applicable
URL	If Applicable
Function	If Applicable
Identifier
Identifier	Required
Namespace	Required
Description
Abstract	Required^*
Time Period
Start Date	Required^*
End Date	Required^*

Basic Information

Record ID (Auto-generated)

The Record ID will be auto-generated. It can be edited but it should only be edited if absolutely necessary (and ideally edited as soon as the record is created in mdEditor).

Title (Required)

Enter a concise, yet informative Title. Good titles, when they appear in a search, will be understood and traceable.

Status (Required)

The Status drop-down menu allows you to select the status of your project. Choose a status from only these four options: accepted, completed, onGoing, or proposed.

Default Locale (Required)

Default Locale allows for the selection of Language, Character Set, and Country. English, UTF-8, and USA will be selected by default, but you may change them if necessary. See Settings for instruction.

Resource Types (Required)

For projects, the Resource Type should be automatically filled in with the resource type you selected when you created your record. This should be “project” for all SA projects. Name is optional - you can leave this blank or enter a shorten project name.

Points of Contact (Required)

Adding a point of contact gives staff information on who to contact should they have a question regarding your project or product. From the Role drop-down menu, select pointOfContact. From the Contacts drop-down menu, select a contact from the list of contacts. See the Contact Records section for information on creating contacts.

Add additional Points of Contact as listed in the table below.

Role	Contact	Requirements
pointOfContact	FWS Science Applications National Data Steward	Required
pointOfContact	Data Steward	Required
principalInvestigator	Project Principal Investigator and/or Producer	Required, if applicable
custodian	Data Custodian	Required, if applicable
owner	Data Trustee	Required
administrator	Project Officer, if not the Steward	Required
administrator	FWS Region (legacy and DOI Unified), FWS Program	Required
collaborator	Partnership Organizations and/or Programs	Required, if applicable

Example Points of Contact Entry in mdEditor

Note

The FWS Science Applications National Data Steward will serve as the long term contact and backup. This way, users have a point-of-contact even if there is a positional change within an organization. Regional Data Steward should be included in addition as a point of contact, if available.

Citation

The Citation describes pertinent information about your project such as: responsible parties, internal and ScienceBase identifiers, and any online resources that may relate to your item. The citation, much like a peer-reviewed publication citation, provides credit and services as a reference citation. Adding information in the citation will also improve users’ ability to find your items.

Title (Required)

The citation Title is automatically populated with the Basis Information section’s Title.

Alternate Title (If desired)

You can add an Alternate Title, if desired. Generally these should be shorter than the full Title.

Dates (Required)

Enter Dates for acquisition, creation, updated, or revision from the pick list and then enter the date. At least one of these date types is required.

Responsible Parties (Required)

Responsible parties must include the principal investigator of the project, but may optionally include other responsible parties such as funders (your region and program), partners, collaborators, and contributors. Collaborators could be intellectual participants while contributors could be intellectual and financial participants.

Note

To add contacts to a metadata record, you must first create/upload the contacts in mdEditor. See the Contacts section for more information.

Role	Contact	Requirements
principalInvestigator	Project Principal Investigator	Required
coPrincipalInvestigator	Co-Investigators	Required, if applicable

Online Resource (If applicable)

Enter the Name, URL, and Function for the project homepage website, if available.

Identifier (Required)

You may enter as many Identifiers as desired. The identifier for the repository is required here. If you have other internal IDs for projects, enter them here. Other optional identifiers for projects include: Archive Folder Name.

Best Practice

Create and use internal identifiers that are unique within your region or program for projects and their products. Example: GNLCC2010-11.

Note

If your item does not have a ScienceBase ID yet, ScienceBase will create one automatically upon publishing. If you imported your item from ScienceBase originally, then the SBID will already be included in Metadata/Metadata Identifier and you do not need to include it here. Note that if you edit an item that is already on ScienceBase without using its existing ID, a duplicate item will be created on ScienceBase. Consult the Publish section of this manual to learn more.

Description

Abstract (Required)

Enter an Abstract that succinctly describes the project’s purpose and goals. Include key species or habitats as well.

Tip

Write your project abstract in the present tense if the project is in progress and past tense if the project has been completed.

Short Abstract

For the Short Abstract enter a short description, limited to 300 characters, if desired. By default, mdEditor will fill the short abstract with the first 300 characters of the Abstract. Best practice is to write this abstract for public outreach, such as use by Office of Communications.

Purpose

The Purpose should be a short narrative about the issue or problem that the resource is designed to address and anticipated results or benefits.

Supplemental Information

For the Supplemental Information enter comments, if desired.

Time Period

Start Date and End Date (Required)

For each project, add a Start Date and End Date. If the project spanned a single fiscal year, you can use the “Pick a Fiscal Year” drop-down to autofill the date fields.

Note

This set of dates is distinct from the fiscal year of funding. Here you want to indicate the overall project start and end dates. In the Funding section you will specify the fiscal years that funds were allocated.

Example Project Start and End Dates entry in mdEditor