TitletrueA short informative name for the asset. If someone sees just the title in a web search or catalog list, will they likely understand what the data includes? Don't assume the viewer is from Washington state, or the U.S. Do spell out acronyms, with the acronym included in parentheses ("Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)"). Do include the region, but at the end of the title in parentheses (e.g., Public Library Branch Locations (Washington State)); otherwise data.wa.gov's catalog will be heavy with items beginning with Washington. Don't use Data in the title. Don't include your agency name in the title; that belongs in the Data Provided by field. Don't include years covered; put this in Period of Time field. Brief DescriptiontrueThe first two sentences should describe dataset content and significance. Include a short general description of how and why the data is collected (citing legislation if applicable and always if the published data is required by law). Identify common data users. Include questions people answer with this data. Write to the general public. Spell out abbreviations, acronyms and full names. Don't assume the user is familiar with your agency, Washington state, or the U.S. Don't assume the user can see your page or use sight to scan your table to get the gist of what it's all about: Your description should provide that information. If you link to external sources from this description, check that the sources meet online accessibility standards. One paragraph of up to about 100 words is ideal. If the data has idiosyncrasies or limitations, or your agency requires certain disclaimers or other language, you can include that in a second paragraph, but a Note is more likely to be noticed by the user. (You can include such information in both the Brief Description and Notes, if you wish.) Row LabelfalseComplete the sentence "Each row is a …" with a short description of what distinguishes one row from another. Ideally each row is one unique observation, e.g., the number of adult fish counted at a particular site, the results of a lead test for a sample of a particular school's drinking water. This field can be a valuable checkpoint for understanding and describing the data overall. Is every row clearly distinct or are there variants? Before you say each row is an x, are there any rows with no value for x? CategorytruePick one of the topic areas from a dropdown menu of options. If these don't fit and you really need a new category, contact the Open Data Program (opendata@wa.gov). Tags/KeywordstrueKeywords a user would likely enter to search for your data. When a user enters search terms into the data.wa.gov search box, the platform looks for those terms in the title, description, column names, column definitions, category, tags and attribution. The platform also searches automatically for similar variants of the search terms, e.g., if the user searches for "educational," the platform will also search for “education”, “educating” and “educate”. Thus, please don't list the following as tags: Your agency name (which should already be in the Attribution metadata field), Washington (ideally included in parentheses at the end of the item's Title), or the time period (which should be accounted for in the Period of Time metadata field). Also avoid listing variants of the same tag (e.g., license, licenses, licensing); stick with the one that best connects to similar data.wa.gov content. Always use existing tags first (the platform will auto-suggest these as you type) before generating a brand new tag; better to use an imperfect existing tag that bundles your item to similar content, than to generate a new tag disconnected from anything else. Contact opendata@wa.gov if you see tags that need updating. (For internal content-management tags, please use underscores or other "official use only" formatting distinct from natural language search terms.) Public License TypefalseChoose from the dropdown menu. If you are unsure about your choice, contact the Open Data Program (opendata@wa.gov). Data Provided bytrueThe full name of your agency, as it appears on the agency home webpage. You can also include a department or section after a comma. Please check other assets on data.wa.gov to make sure you use the same full agency name, and the same designation for any sub-sections. This makes it easier to find and manage your agency's content. Source LinkfalseA URL for the agency webpage that most directly relates to the asset content. This can be the agency homepage, or the webpage for the appropriate agency department or topic. *For External Links: Do not include a separate source page here, to avoid confusion. If users need other links for essential information about the data source, add them elsewhere. Data dictionaries may be linked separately for each external dataset, and additional documentation can be added as an Attachment or flagged in a Note. Contact EmailtrueAn email for staff who maintain the data and can respond to user inquiries. The email receives queries via the Contact Dataset Owner form; users don't see the contact email address itself. Ideally users receive at least an acknowledgment within a business day. Consider using a distribution list, so that anyone on a team can respond, and user queries don't land in a void when someone is busy or away from the office. Please keep in mind that a contact is especially important for flagging your agency about any accessibility or privacy issues. AttachmentsfalseA place to attach documents that provide instructions, glossaries, or helpful context to the user. (May not be easily seen from the primer page unless users click on Show More.) Any documents attached here must meet accessibility standards; contact the Open Data Program (opendata@wa.gov) if you need help with this. *For External Links: If your data dictionary exists as a separate document, include it as an Attachment. NotesfalseA good place to provide important caveats, history, methodology or context that you want the user to see right away. Can include hyperlinks; please ensure the links lead to sources that meet online accessibility standards. (Contact the Open Data Program (opendata@wa.gov) if you need help with this.) Notes appear prominently on the primer page and require no extra clicks. *For External Links: Please use a Note to document data sharing or publications based on another agency's data. This is also a good place to flag users about any important information about the data publication -- including data dictionaries -- which they would not easily find by going to the link. Period of TimetrueEarliest-to-most-recent dates covered by the data (not the dates your agency has been publishing the data). You may use "the present" for the most recent date, if the data is kept current. Posting FrequencytrueHow frequently you expect to update this data. Please use common cadences, such as annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily or as needed.