Metadata for Research Integrity: A Guide

April 2026

Why Metadata Matters for Research Integrity and How to Contribute

Research integrity depends on accurate, complete, and connected metadata. This joint guide from Crossref and DataCite sets out the metadata elements most critical for assessing research integrity—and how all stakeholders can contribute to and benefit from a richer, more trustworthy scholarly record.

Strategists

Understand why metadata is infrastructure for research integrity. Why completeness, accuracy, and openness across the scholarly record matters for systemic trust in research.

Decision-makers

Know which metadata elements to require, check, and act on. A practical framework for publishers, funders, and institutions making metadata policy decisions.

Practitioners

Learn how to deposit, enrich, and query research integrity metadata. Step-by-step guidance using Crossref and DataCite services and open APIs.

What this guide covers

This guide walks through the key metadata elements that enable research integrity assessment, and explains how to contribute them via Crossref and DataCite:

  • Contributors and their roles β€” identifying who did what
  • Affiliations β€” linking researchers to institutions
  • Dates β€” submission, acceptance, publication, and update dates
  • Funder, funding, and grant information β€” transparency on who paid for the research
  • Versioning β€” tracking how a work has changed over time
  • Retractions, corrections, and updates β€” keeping the record accurate
  • Abstracts and descriptions β€” what the work is actually about
  • Clinical trials β€” registration and reporting
  • References β€” connecting works to what they cite
  • Peer reviews β€” when and how work was reviewed
  • Publisher and steward β€” accountability for the record
  • Record and resource types β€” what kind of object is this?
  • Relationships and related identifiers β€” linking datasets, preprints, articles, and more
  • Rights, licences, and access β€” how the work can be used

The guide also sets out a call to action for each stakeholder group: how to enrich your records, query existing metadata via APIs, and report inconsistencies.

Read the full guide

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Published
1 April 2026

Cite as

Amdekar, M., Chen, X., Cousijn, H., El-Gebali, S., Feeney, P., Hendricks, G., & Stathis, K. (2026, April). Why metadata matters for research integrity and how to contribute. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19695957

CC BY 4.0

Page maintainer: Helena Cousijn
Last updated: 2026-April-01