Metadata is a description of the content, quality, lineage, contact, condition, and other characteristics of data. The description of the data is organized in a standardized format using a common set of terms. Metadata is literally "data about data." Metadata records are similar in concept to library catalog records: details about a book such as title, author, and publisher are recorded in a standard way to ease the search for information.
Biological metadata records work in the same way: information is recorded in a standardized format about a dataset (content, quality, condition, and more) for use and analysis. Metadata ultimately makes information about datasets more easily accessible to scientists and researchers.
A metadata record answers the following questions about a dataset: