Data Description and Annotation
Definition
Data description and annotation refers to the process of explaining, contextualizing, and documenting data. This process is vital to ensuring that other researchers can properly understand the data to use it for secondary analysis or replication. Data description and annotation can be accomplished in a series of ways. For example, one can describe data using metadata and formal metadata schemas, like the DataCite Metadata Schema. One can also describe or annotate data by creating documentation, such as a data dictionary.
Relevant Literature
A short guide from DMPTool on what to document about data and how.
DMPTool: Metadata and Data Documentation: https://dmptool.org/general_guidance#metadata-data-documentation