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:

• Who collected the data?
• Who maintains the data
  
• How were these data collected?
• Where were they collected?
  
• When were the data collected?
• Why were the data collected?
• Where are the data stored?