Metadata schema of the NFDI4Health and the NFDI4Health Task Force COVID-19 (V3_1)

The Metadata Schema of the NFDI4Health and the NFDI4Health Task Force COVID-19 (Metadata Schema) contains a list of properties that describe a resource to be registered in the German Central Health Study Hub. Currently, two main types of resources are distinguished: a) study descriptions (i.e., metadata set describing a study) and b) study documents. However, due to the generic character of the Metadata Schema, other types of resources may also be described and registered. The metadata properties are divided into mandatory and recommended ones. Along with bibliographic information such as title and description of the resource, the related persons and organizations contributing to the development of the resource can also be specified. The results of studies published in journal articles or other text publications can be linked too. For studies, information about study design and accessibility of the collected data should be additionally provided. The Metadata Schema consists mainly of properties adapted from established standards and models such as DataCite Metadata Schema 4.4, data models of the ClinicalTrials.gov, German Clinical Trials Register, International Clinical Trials Registry, HL7® FHIR, MIABIS, Maelstrom Research cataloguing toolkit and DDI Controlled Vocabularies. This is an updated version V3_1 of the Metadata Schema, which introduces two new resource types, namely registries and secondary data sources. Accordingly, the metadata set describing studies, which was part of the core module in previous versions, has been split into a separate module and adapted to also apply to registries and secondary data sources. An additional use case-specific module has also been added, including metadata specific to record linkage. The undertaken changes are described within the document.