Federation partner
CODATA
The Committee on Data of the International Science Council stewards the Research Data Management Terminology — formerly the CASRAI IRiDiuM Glossary — and convenes the volunteer expert group that maintains it.
What CODATA stewards
CODATA holds long-term custody of the Research Data Management Terminology — the vocabulary historically known inside CASRAI as the IRiDiuM Glossary. IRiDiuM (the International Research Data Management Glossary) was developed by a CASRAI international working group between roughly 2014 and 2019. When CASRAI wound down in 2020 the glossary was transferred to CODATA, renamed, and brought under a standing review process.
The terminology covers the concepts research data managers, librarians, repository operators, and funders need to talk about consistently: data management plans, data lifecycle stages, FAIR concepts, repository typologies, licence terms, identifiers, and the workflow vocabulary that connects them.
The CODATA RDM Terminology Working Group
CODATA convenes a volunteer expert working group that reviews submitted terms, reconciles overlaps with adjacent vocabularies (RDA, GO-FAIR, NIH GREI), and publishes periodic updates. The group works in the open and accepts contributions from the wider community; the cadence is slower than that of a fully staffed standards body but the editorial line is consistent.
Practically, this means a research-data manager looking for a defensible definition of, for example, "data steward" or "minimum viable data management plan" can cite the CODATA terminology entry and rely on it being maintained.
Why CODATA
CODATA was the natural steward for two reasons. First, the terminology's primary audience — research-data managers and the institutions that employ them — sits almost entirely within CODATA's existing constituency. Second, CODATA already runs an international RDM terminology effort, so the merger reduces fragmentation rather than creating yet another parallel vocabulary. The 2020 handover therefore consolidated rather than dispersed the work.
How CASRAI federates with CODATA
- The terminology's canonical home is the CODATA website, not this site. We link out rather than mirror.
- Where the Research Data Management Terminology overlaps with FAIR principles or with the data elements held by euroCRIS in the Catalogue, the alignment is recorded on the cross-walks reference page.
- The 2020 joint statement, signed by CODATA together with euroCRIS and NISO, is the public record of the handover and is reproduced and indexed on the joint statements page.
Practical use
Institutions writing or revising a data management policy, training a new cohort of data stewards, or building tooling around RDM workflows can cite the CODATA terminology directly. The terminology is intentionally publication-neutral: it does not assume a particular repository platform, a particular funder regime, or a particular national jurisdiction, which is what makes it usable across the international community CODATA serves.
For terms that originated in IRiDiuM but have since been refined under CODATA stewardship, the canonical definition is the current CODATA entry. Older IRiDiuM-era wording should not be relied on where the two diverge.
