metajelo: A Metadata Package for Journals to Support External Linked Objects

A metadata standard enabling journals to register and document supplementary materials critical for reproducibility and replicability.

Project Goal

We proposed a metadata package (called metajelo) that is intended to provide academic journals with a lightweight means of registering, at the time of publication, the existence and disposition of supplementary materials. Information about the supplementary materials is, in most cases, critical for the reproducibility and replicability of scholarly results.

In many instances, these materials are curated by a third party, which may or may not follow developing standards for the identification and description of those materials. Researchers submit papers to journals with various types of supplementary materials—data, code, protocols, and other research objects—that are increasingly hosted in external repositories. The metajelo standard provides a structured way for journals to document where these materials are located, what they contain, and how they can be accessed.

The metadata package is designed to be:

  • Lightweight: Easy for journals to implement without requiring extensive technical infrastructure
  • Flexible: Accommodates various types of supplementary materials and repository structures
  • Standards-based: Builds on existing metadata standards and best practices
  • Machine-readable: Enables automated validation and discovery of research artifacts

Purpose of Funding

Funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation supported the development and implementation of the metajelo metadata standard. The grant enabled:

  • Design and specification of the metadata schema
  • Development of implementation tools and documentation
  • Engagement with journals, repositories, and the scholarly community
  • Testing and refinement of the standard through real-world applications

This work was part of a broader effort to enhance the transparency, reproducibility, and replicability of empirical research in the social sciences by simplifying how authors can, when submitting a paper to a journal, provide structured metadata about the provenance and archiving of code, data, and other supplementary materials.

Expected Products

  • A metadata specification document
  • Implementation tools and libraries
  • Documentation and best practices guide
  • Working paper and published article
  • GitHub repository with open-source tools

Outcomes

The project successfully delivered:

  • Published Specification: The metajelo metadata standard was formally documented and published
  • Working Paper: Lagoze, C. and Vilhuber, L., “metajelo: A metadata package for journals to support external linked objects,” Labor Dynamics Institute, Document 52, 2019
  • Journal Article: Published in the International Journal of Digital Curation (2021), Volume 16, Issue 1
  • Open Source Implementation: The GitHub repository provides tools, documentation, and examples for adopting the standard
  • Community Engagement: Presentations and discussions with journal editors, repository managers, and metadata experts

Presentations

  • DOI IDCC, Melbourne, Australia (5 Feb 2019)
  • DOI NADDI, Ottawa, Canada (April 2019)

Github

Related Publications

  1. Metajelo: A Metadata Package for Journals to Support External Linked Objects
    Lars Vilhuber and Carl Lagoze
    International Journal of Digital Curation, 2021
    DOI