METADATA QUALITY EVALUATION OF SECONDARYDATA SOURCES

Quite some researchers use data sources collected by others for their own investigations. Because of this choice, the research becomes highly dependent on the quality of the secondary data sources used. Therefore, it is important that, prior to use, one is able to check the quality of secondary data sources in a systematic and standardized way. This paper describes the development of a procedure for the evaluation of the quality of the metadata of secondary sources. In it two different views on metadata quality are distinguished. The first view focuses on quality aspects essential for the delivery of the source, whereas the second view predominantly focuses on the conceptual metadata aspects. The quality is determined with a checklist. The approach, originally developed for secondary data sources used for statistics, is applicable to a ll areas of research that make use of secondary data sources.