Real life examples using the DDI metadata standard to document variable comparability across studies

The use of structured, machine-actionable metadata is essential to increasing the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of digital data collections. As a strong supporter of the FAIR data principles, ICPSR consistently uses the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata standard to describe its collections, both at study and at variable level.

In this presentation, we will focus on the way we have been using the DDI-Lifecycle standard to describe longitudinal or time-series studies.

Based on real-life examples from the metadata created for several projects supported by the NACDA Program on Aging topical archive, we will demonstrate the advantages of using the DDI-Lifecycle standard for documenting variable comparability across datasets. The way this value-added documentation is processed and presented on the Web assists users in the discovery and further evaluation of comparable data points, supporting projects that seek to harmonize and analyze longitudinal data to assess changes in attitudes or populations over time.