[Repec-data] A few introductions

['Christian Zimmermann']

Several people have approached me about the current movement about open 
data, and in particular about RePEc being able to list data (sets). RePEc 
is already a widely used portal for publications in Economics, and it 
could help provide incentives for researchers and institutions to index 
their data. In particular, RePEc can help make the data citable, and can 
allow researchers getting credit for the data they make available through 
download counts.

RePEc is, however, not yet ready to accept datasets because its metadata 
scheme does not account for them. The goal of this group is to come up 
with a scheme that can be applied to the many type of data that are used 
in Economics. The RePEc metadata scheme for publications is remarkably 
stable, as it is still at version 1.0 since 1997 (and before many other 
schemes were created). We want to achieve similar stability.

There are plenty of other standards out there. We want to learn from them 
so that we do not make their mistakes. We are, however, constrained by the 
general scheme of ReDIF (Resource Description Information Format) that 
RePEc uses. Hence I suggest that before we get going, those who are not 
familiar with this scheme read a couple of documents that describe ReDIF 
and how RePEc works. I do not think in-depth knowledge of this is 
required, the RePEc team members will make sure of ReDIF compliance. Just 
make sure you have a general understanding.

The first document, is the Guidford Protocol at 
http://openlib.org/acmes/root/docu/guilp.html
This describes how RePEc archives provide their metadata. We currently 
have 1583 participating archives.

The second document is the ReDIF documentation at 
http://openlib.org/acmes/root/docu/redif_1.html
This defines the metadata templates in use in RePEc. Our goal is to create 
a similar template for data. Important is going to be to define mandatory 
and optional fields, and possibly field values.

The third document are step-by-step instructions at 
http://ideas.repec.org/stepbystep.html
We give them to those interested in building a RePEc archive. These 
instructions basically tell you the same as the above, but in a way that 
is more practical and more digestible. You may prefer reading this if you 
are short on time.


Christian Zimmermann                          FIGUGEGL!
Economic Research
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
P.O. Box 442
St. Louis MO 63166-0442 USA
http://ideas.repec.org/zimm/