Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A repository deposit record captures the file's checksum, file format (e.g. CSV, UTF-8), the license selected by the depositor (e.g. CC BY 4.0), and the accession date — all administrative metadata, distinct from the dataset's descriptive title, author list, and subject keywords stored in the same record.
- Is an instance
A digital preservation system logs a format-migration event (converting an old file format to a current one) along with the software used and a timestamp — administrative (specifically preservation) metadata that documents how the object has been managed over time.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A dataset's title, author names, and subject keywords are descriptive metadata, not administrative metadata — even though they are commonly stored in the very same repository record alongside genuinely administrative fields like license and checksum.
Editorial commentary
Administrative metadata is one of the standard categories in metadata theory, alongside descriptive metadata and structural metadata. Where descriptive metadata answers “what is this resource, and how do I find it?”, administrative metadata answers “how is this resource managed, and under what conditions can it be used?”
What counts as administrative metadata
In practice, administrative metadata covers four overlapping areas:
- Rights and permissions — licensing terms, copyright status, and access restrictions (for example, a DataCite
rightsListentry or a CC BY license statement). - Provenance and acquisition — who deposited or created the resource, when, through what process, and any chain-of-custody information.
- Technical and file-format details — file type, software or equipment used to create the resource, file size, and fixity information such as checksums.
- Access control — who is permitted to view, download, or modify the resource, and under what embargo or authentication conditions.
Some frameworks additionally distinguish preservation metadata — information needed to support long-term digital preservation, such as that captured by PREMIS — as its own named subtype nested under the administrative umbrella, since preservation actions (fixity checks, format migration, event logging) draw directly on the same technical and provenance information.
How it differs from descriptive and structural metadata
Descriptive metadata (the kind captured by schemas like Dublin Core and summarized in CASRAI’s core metadata entry) exists to make a resource findable and citable: title, creator, subject, date. Structural metadata describes how the parts of a complex object relate to one another — page order in a digitized book, or file relationships within a dataset package. Administrative metadata is orthogonal to both: a dataset can have a perfect descriptive record (title, author, keywords) and still be unmanageable without administrative metadata telling a repository who may access it, under what license, and whether its checksums still match the original deposit.
Where it shows up in real standards
The clearest concrete example is the METS schema, which structures a digital object into named sections including a descriptive metadata section (dmdSec) and a dedicated administrative metadata section (amdSec) — the latter itself subdivided into technical, rights, source/provenance, and digital-provenance metadata. PREMIS is the dominant standard specifically for the preservation-metadata slice of this space. In research data management, DataCite’s rightsList property is a widely used real-world instance of rights-and-permissions administrative metadata attached to a dataset DOI.
Why it matters for research data management
Repositories rely on administrative metadata to enforce deposit and access policies, support audit trails for compliance and funder reporting, and enable long-term reuse and preservation planning. A data curator or repository manager is typically the one responsible for capturing and maintaining this metadata at deposit and throughout a dataset’s lifecycle — it is rarely supplied by the depositing researcher in full, which is one reason curation workflows exist.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Administrative Metadata"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/administrative-metadata" />{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/administrative-metadata",
"name": "Administrative Metadata",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/administrative-metadata",
"description": "Administrative metadata is the category of metadata used to manage a resource — as distinct from metadata used to describe or discover it. It typically covers four practical areas: rights and permissions (licensing, access restrictions), provenance and acquisition history (who deposited it, when, and how), technical/file-format details (file type, software/equipment used, checksums), and access-control information. NISO's standard three-way split names it alongside descriptive and structural metadata, and treats technical and preservation metadata as administrative subtypes — though usage varies slightly by standard: METS, for example, models technical, rights, provenance, and preservation information together under a single amdSec (administrative metadata section), sitting alongside — not nested inside — its descriptive metadata section (dmdSec).",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/data-infrastructure#set",
"url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/administrative-metadata",
"sameAs": [],
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"publisher": {
"@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
},
"dateModified": "2026-07-18T06:30:55",
"inLanguage": "en"
}
