This table describes the elements of metadata to be used in the description of research materials such as data and codes. The table is based on the work done in the Work Group “Description of research materials” under the Finnish Open Science Coordination.

Download this form as a Word file, fill it and upload with your manuscript as a “dataset” type file.

Item	Description	Fulfils FAIR principle	Responsible
Name of the data / code	Unambiguous, descriptive name in the language of the material and in English.	Findable	Author
Author & ORCID	Person or organisation that has produced the material. Write names in the format last name(s)1, first name(s)1, last name(s)2, first name(s)2, etc. Give also the ORCID for persons so that scientists with the same name can be identified.	Findable, accessible, reusable, interoperable	Author
Authors’ affiliation(s)	Authors’ affiliation to the organisation, in which/with resources of which the material was produced. Give also the ROR of the organisation if possible.	Findable	Author
Owner of the material	Name the owner(s) of the materials. If no transfer of rights is agreed, the author(s) own the material. Give ORCID for person(s) and ROR for organisation(s) that own the material.	Reusable	Author
Publisher	The actor who has the right to publish the metadata, materials and/or description of the materials. This may be an archive, a repository or a research organisation. Give the ROR of the organisation if available.	Findable, accessible	Author
Funder	The actor whose funding and/or resources were used for producing the materials. Give also the ROR of an organisation.	Findable	Author
Description	Concise description (1-2 paragraphs) of the contents of the materials: Aim and objectives of the materials and use in research; components of the materials; research object and unit of observation. The description should make the material understandable and reusable by other scientists.	Findable, reusable	Author
Methods	Write an abstract of your methods and provide a link to your article in Silva Fennica. Mention the used instruments, name the sampling and analysis methods, and programmes.	Interoperable, reusable	Author
Variables	Give the full unabbreviated name of all variables in the dataset, the abbreviation or other identifier used in the dataset and the SI unit of the variable.	Interoperable, resusable	Author
Author keywords	Free keywords that describe the materials and make them easy to find after publication.	Findable	Author
Vocabulary keywords (community standard)	Keywords from controlled vocabularies and ontologies (general or disciplinary) that improve the findability of the material. Provide links to the vocabularies used e.g., the taxonomic database used for nomenclature.	Findable	Author
Discipline	Field(s) of study to which the material is related. This is generally given by the repository as they use specific classifications.	Findable	Archive/Repository/Publisher
Type of material	Describe the kind of research material deposited e.g., research data, analytical code, model code, interviews, video.	Findable	Author
Language	Language of the materials. Use the three-letter abbreviation according to the ISO 639-2/3 standard.	Findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable	Author
Time range covered	Time range that the material covers. Use the date format YYYY-MM-DD according to the ISO 8601 standard. If time is needed, use the format HH:MM:SS.	Findable, interoperable	Author
Geographic region	Geographical region covered by the materials. If possible, use geographical names and coordinates according to the ISO standard or another machine-readable vocabulary.	Findable, interoperable	Author
Version	If several versions of the material exist, provide a clear version number.	Reusable	Author
File format(s)	Use generally used formats that are archivable and independent on (commercial) programmes, like .txt, .csv, .tiff, .mp4.	Accessible, interoperable, reusable	Author
Availability of the materials (open, embargo, registration, limited, registration required)	Describe the accessibility of the materials. If access is restricted for an acceptable reason, describe it. If the material is commercial or an official database, describe how to buy or apply for access.	Accessible, reusable	Author
Justification for access restrictions	If the material is not open, justify why the access is restricted/not allowed.	Accessible, reusable	Author
Licence	A licence defines the conditions for reuse of the material. Silva Fennica requests the use of Creative Commons licences.	Reusable	Author
Connections with other research materials	Relationship of the material with other research materials: 1) The material is derived from another material e.g., research data is derived from raw data (IsBasedOn), 2) The material is a part of another material (IsPartOf), 3) Other materials are connected to the material (HasPart).	Findable, reusable	Author
Access to the connected research materials	Describe how to access the related research materials. For open materials, give the permanent identifier or, if not available, the URL. If the materials are not open, describe how to request access. Give the name of the repository or organisation responsible on preserving the material. Use the ROR of the responsible organisation.	Accessible, findable, reusable	Author
Codes only: hardware/software requirements for running the code	Describe the minimum hardware requirements for running the code. Give the operating system needed. For own codes, describe the environment used for programming e.g., operating system and programming language with version number. If a specific software is needed for running the code, give the name and version of the software. Describe access to the software: Permanent identifier or URL for open software or access instructions to a commercial or other proprietary software.	Interoperable, reusable	Author
Connections to other products of research	Publications and other products of research that are connected to the material. Provide the DOI of your article in Silva Fennica and other journals if the material is used in several articles.	Findable, reusable	Author
Personal data	If the materials contain personal data, give the following information: 1) keeper of the registry, 2) does the material contain personal information on people related specific human groups (e.g., indigenous people) and if so, what.	Accessible, reusable	Author
Confidential or secret data	Does the material contain confidential or secret information e.g., confidential business information or sensitive species information?	Accessible, reusable	Author
Publication date	Date of publication in an archive or repository.	Findable, interoperable	Archive/Repository/Publisher
Preservation policy	Decision and plan for preserving the material permanently or for a specific time. Justify why this decision was made. Please note that the author is responsible on removing the material after the predefined preservation time.	Accessible, reusable	Author
Permanent identifier (PID)	Unambiguous, permanent identifier of the material. The identifier may be DOI, URN or accession number.	Findable, accessible, reusable	Archive/Repository/Publisher

Click this link to register to Silva Fennica.

If you are a registered user, log in to save your selected articles for later access.

Contents alert

Your selected articles

Follow @SilvaFennica