This Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) keyword set contains keywords for data centers, institutions, and other organizations referenced in metadata records of GCMD keyword users. The keyword labels are usually short names (abbreviations or acronyms). In order to avoid ambiguities, many labels are composed of multiple components, which indicate how the organization fits into a hierarchy of other organizations, or which provide geographical information; the components are separated by slashes. The definitions give the full name of the organization, and further information about the data center, organization, or institution.
For example: AU/RAN/DOM/AODC (the Australian Oceanographic Data Centre).
The keywords are clustered by organization category, such as ACADEMIC, COMMERCIAL, and MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS.
These keywords have been used by organizations such as the Fenner School of Environment and Society (the Australian National University), and the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, Norway.
Any person or organization may request an addition, modification or deletion to the keywords. A requester can be from the user community, a provider of metadata to GCMD, or any other GCMD stakeholder.
Further information is available in the Governance and community guide and at the GCMD Keywords Community Forum.
Generic information about the GCMD keywords follows:
The keywords help facilitate the classification and discovery of Earth Science data by providing a rich vocabulary for characterizing the data. The GCMD keywords are used by hundreds of data providers worldwide for categorizing the ~33,000 records stored in the Common Metadata Repository.
For more information about the keywords and how to access them, please visit the Keyword Landing Page. The GCMD User Support staff can be reached at gsfc-gcmduso@mail.nasa.gov. Questions can also be directed to Valerie Dixon at valerie.dixon@nasa.gov.