(8) Structural Metadata

What is “Structural Metadata”?

Structural metadata describes the variables within a dataset. This was previously referred to as Technical Metadata.

What do I need to include?

We recommend sites to provide a data dictionary of structural metadata that includes the following information:

Required = *

Metadata Field	Completion Guidance	Constraints	Mandatory?
Table Name *	Name of the table in the dataset. Use a fully qualified name if appropriate.	255 characters max	Yes
Table Description	Description of the table in the dataset.	20,000 characters max	No
Column Name *	Name of the column in the table dataset	255 characters max	Yes
Column Description *	Description of the column in the table dataset.	20,000 characters max	Yes
Data Type Name *	Type of data contained in the column.	255 characters max	Yes
Sensitive *	Please indicate (True / False) whether the information must be treated as sensitive and may need additional constraints / removal / anonymisation / masking through the data access request process. Definition: An ODRL conformant policy expressing the rights associated with the resource.	True / False only.	Yes

Where can I see some concrete examples of valid Structural Metadata?

Please see the following example for your reference. If you require further clarification, we also have several fully populated submissions from other sites that we would be happy to walk through with you. Please contact us via Service Desk to arrange a session.

Structural Metadata Example
Table Name	Table Description	Column Name	Column Description	Data Type	Sensitive
Summary	The summary	Identifier	The identifier	String	TRUE
Summary	The summary	Title	The title	String	FALSE
Summary	The summary	Description	The description	String	TRUE
Required	The required elements	Release Date	The release date	Date	FALSE
Required	The required elements	Data Controller	The controller	String	FALSE
Required	The required elements	Data Processor	The data processor	String	TRUE
Required	The required elements	License	The license	String	FALSE
Recommended	The recommended elements	Periodicity	The periodicity	Integer	TRUE
Recommended	The recommended elements	Frequency	The frequency	String	FALSE

What format should this be in?

The standard format required is an excel file which includes the Metadata Fields listed in the table above (Table Name, Table Description, Column Name, Column Description, Data Type, Sensitive).

Please see this template file:

Is an Excel spreadsheet the only option in which I can upload metadata?

Definitely not! The simple excel template is used as the low common denominator that makes our "lite" user interface as accessible as possible.

However, there are several different methods that supervisors can use to consume and update metadata. We've already used a few of these different formats, on request, with various other members:

REST API that accepts well-formed XML:

2. We can also accept reports from a profiling tool called white rabbit (https://www.ohdsi.org/analytic-tools/whiterabbit-for-etl-design/). White Rabbit is a .jar (with a UI if you need) that you can point at a DB and generate a profiling report from, which can then be used to create a detailed data dictionary.

If you would like to know more about them please raise a Service Desk ticket and we'd be happy to arrange a call to walk through some of them.