Considering Personal Organization: Metadata Practices of Scientists

The integration of data sets into repositories is considered a key issue for library and information scientists. This article reports findings from an ethnographically inspired exploratory study examining how scientists in the field of evolutionary biology organize their research data and the impact this organization could have on the information science community. Specific areas of research and analysis reported include metadata usage, perceptions of the importance of organization, and what types of personal organizational schemes are used in scientific environments. Results indicate that, contrary to assumptions that organization is completely individual and unique, there are trends in the way evolutionary biologists organize their research data.