PROPOSAL FOR A STATISTICAL METADATA STANDARDWilliam P. LaPlant, Jr., Gregory J. Lestina, Jr., Daniel W. Gillman, Martin V. AppelU.S. Bureau of the CensusABSTRACTA statistical metadata content standard is being developed by the Bureau of the Census. The “Survey Design and Statistical Methodology Metadata” standard is an inclusive set of statistical metadata concepts which characterizes all aspects of survey design, processing, analysis, and data sets. This standard's development is a key step in designing a unified Census Bureau metadata repository for survey and census activities.The goals for this effort are: 1) to develop agreement within the Census Bureau and among our sponsors on the set of metadata necessary to accurately describe our statistical data products, and then to seek advice and concurrence from other Federal users and the statistical community at large; 2) to provide a common thesaurus that can be used as the basis for the content of metadata tags (identification tags) within other standards such as the Spatial Data Transfer Standard [FIPS-173], the Government Information Locator Services Standard [FIPS-192], and proposed and existing (i.e., WAIS) standards for automated indexing on the Internet; 3) to serve as one of the sources of conceptual entities for the modeling needed to develop usable metadata repositories.The proposed standard assumes the existence of the draft “Cultural and Demographic Data Metadata” (CDDM) standard [FGDC/SCDD-95]. In particular, the following components of the CDDM are used by explicit reference: “Themes,” “Geographic Information,” and “Temporal Information.” Elements of the “Identification,” “Source Information” and “Data Quality”components are incorporated, with modifications, throughout the proposal.This paper describes the above items and provides the location on the Internet where those who are interested can review the standard and provide comments.KEYWORDSSurvey design, statistical methodology, analysis, data sets, metadata repository, GILS

Proposal for A Statistical Metadata Standard