MEDIN discovery metadata standard icon

Discovery metadata is a list of information that accompanies a data set and allows other people to find out what the data set contains, where it was collected and how they can get hold of it.

MEDIN have produced a standard for marine metadata and a set of tools to create metadata records that comply with the MEDIN Metadata Standard.

Metadata Standard Guidance notes

The MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard is a marine profile of the UK government Standard UK GEMINI (GEo-spatial Metadata Interoperability iNItiative) and also complies with other international conventions such as the EU INSPIRE Directive and ISO19115.

Currently, MEDIN has two versions of its Metadata Standard available to users.

These are: (a) v2.3.8, which has been in use for a number of years and (b) v3.1.2, recently updated by MEDIN to comply with the updated GEMINI v2.3 UK geospatial standard.

MEDIN are engaged in an ongoing process of updating its metadata creation tools and discovery metadata portal to work with v3.1.2. Please note that MEDIN’s intention is, once the tools and portal are updated, to retire v2.3.8 of the Standard.

Download Discovery Metadata Standard Guidance notes

Previous versions of MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard »

Browse other marine data standards »

MEDIN Discovery Metadata Editor 

The MEDIN Discovery Metadata Editor is a web-based tool that allows users to create, validate, export, and publish marine discovery metadata records directly to the MEDIN Data Discovery Portal. MEDIN Data Discovery Portal →

Users can generate metadata records for a wide range of marine data types that adhere to the latest MEDIN Geospatial Standard (v3.1.2) and MEDIN's new Non-Spatial standard.

Discovery Metadata Editor »

The old MEDIN Discovery Metadata Editor (for v2.3.8) can be accessed below. Please note that the old tool will be retired in February 2026. We encourage users to switch to the new editor, as any new records created with the old tool will not be retained after retirement.

Old Discovery Metadata Editor (v2.3.8) »

Metadata Maestro (for v3.1 & v2.3.8 MEDIN Metadata)

Metadata Maestro 3.1 is a powerful metadata editor tool designed to streamline the creation, management and standardisation of metadata for environmental data. 

With its user-friendly interface, Metadata Maestro enables users to generate metadata records that adheres to the MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard v3.1.

Metadata Maestro functions as a standalone desktop application that can update its controlled vocabularies whenever an internet connection is available.

Metadata Maestro v3.1. is available for download from the MEDIN GitHub. By downloading the Metadata Maestro tool or using this software you are agreeing to the conditions set out in the Sub-License Agreement.

Metadata Maestro for version 2.3.8 is also still available to download. By downloading the Metadata Maestro 2.3.8 tool you are agreeing to the license conditions for this application, which specify that your contact details may be passed to the application developers, HR Wallingford, if requested.

Download Metadata Maestro v2.3.8 and installation instructions

Validation

If you wish to validate XML metadata records within your own systems, MEDIN provide our own Schematron and Xml Schema Definition (XSD), along with example XML output files. These are available here. The zip file contains the new MEDIN v3.1.2 XSD, the new MEDIN v3.1.2/nonGeographicDataset schematron and example XML files for datasets, series, service and nonGeographicDataset metadata.

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