DDI 3: Extracting Metadata from the Data Analysis Workflow

A few tools have been developed to extract metadata from SPSS, Stata, and SAS datasets (see http://tools.ddialliance.org/?lvl1=library ). Each of these data analysis packages allows for a different set of metadata in their data files. For each of these packages the focus of the metadata they contain is primarily for the use of the data and not for other purposes such as resource discovery, citation, and context. In some cases there are differences in the programs’ underlying metadata models. In a few instances these differences may make it difficult to represent the complete set of metadata available in DDI1 . An explicit enumeration of what metadata are available would be useful for future refinement of extraction programs and possible evolution of the DDI standard.  Some of these programs allow for representation of complex relationships between multiple tables. For the most part those features have been not been thoroughly explored in this analysis.