Aristotle Metadata template for the Office of the National Data Commissioner (ONDC) Core 26 Attributes Data Assets

About this template:

This is an unofficial template designed by Aristotle Metadata to help organisations develop data inventories and document data assets by providing a simple template to collect the 26 Core Metadata Attributes recommended by the Office of the National Data Commissioner (ONDC).
Learn more about this template at: https://www.aristotlemetadata.com/ondc-template

Guide for use:

Enter as much information about each asset as you have available. If your data is generated from multiple sources, you can select the “plus icon” shown below to add new rows to the table to describe each data asset individually.

None of the fields within this document are mandatory when saving, however, the ONDC has recommended these 26 attributes to build a consistent understanding of government data. When completing information about a data asset aim to enter as much information as you have available.

You can learn more about the ONDC 26 Core Metadata Attributes at:
https://www.datacommissioner.gov.au/launch-data-catalogue

Core Attributes

Identifier The unique identifier of the asset.	Click or tap here to enter an identifier. Aristotle UUID: Enter a UUID, or leave blank to create a new item
Title The most common useful name by which the data asset is known by your agency and by your largest perceived audience.	Click or tap here to enter text.
Description A descriptive statement of the asset.	Click or tap here to enter text.

Point of Contact The relevant contact information from which information for the asset can be obtained.	Click or tap here to enter text.
Access Rights A statement that provides information on access to the data asset.	Choose an item.
Security Classification The security classification applied to the asset as specified by the Australian Government Protective Security Policy Framework.	Choose an item.
Data Custodian The data custodian(s) of the data, according to the Data Availability and Transparency Act 2022.	Click or tap here to enter text.
Keyword A keyword or tag describing the asset.	Click or tap here to enter text.
Resource Type The category of asset being described.	Choose an item.
Date Modified The most recent date the data asset was changed, updated or modified.	Click or tap to enter a date.

Recommended additional attributes

Publish Date The date on which the asset was formally issued or made available.	Click or tap to enter a date.
Temporal coverage from The start date of the period for which this asset is applicable.	Click or tap to enter a date.
Temporal coverage to The end date of the period for which this asset is applicable.	Click or tap to enter a date.
Update Frequency The frequency at which new, revised or updated versions of this data asset are made available.	Choose an item.
Purpose A descriptive summary of the intentions with which the asset was developed.	Click or tap here to enter text.
Location The geographic area the asset applies to.	Click or tap here to enter text.
Access URL The file path and/ or URL that gives access to a distribution of the resource.	Click or tap here to enter text.
Licence A legal document under which the asset is made available.	Click or tap here to enter text.
Sensitive Data The indicator of whether the data asset contains sensitive data.	Choose an item.
Legal Authority The legal mandate under which the asset was collected, created, received, used or disclosed.	Click or tap here to enter text.
Disposal Information about current records authorities and the disposal actions that relate to the data asset.	Click or tap here to enter text.

Data Status A status that describes the state of progression or registration of the data asset.	Choose an item.
File size The size of the asset in bytes.	Click or tap here to enter text.
Format The file format of the data distribution.	Click or tap here to enter text. A human-readable description of the file format of this data set distribution. e.g. csv, shp, pdf, sde, txt, xlsx, etc.
Language Language of the asset.	Click or tap here to enter text.
Publisher The name of an entity responsible for making the asset available.	Click or tap here to enter text.

Data lineage information

Use the table below to provide a brief overview of data used in the creation of your data asset.

Name of data asset	Brief description of data asset	Contact Point	How this asset was used in the creation of this data
Click or tap here to enter text.	Click or tap here to enter text.	Click or tap here to enter text.	Click or tap here to enter text.

Help and information

How to use this template

This template uses Microsoft Word's Content Controls to provide a template for documenting data assets. Because this template doesn’t require any “macros”, it is ideal for use in corporate and government environments for sharing information. Because standard word documents can be easier for people to write but challenging for machines to read, using Content Controls makes it easier to extract information to transfer content into data catalogues as the organisation matures.

This template has locked text and fields text that restrict the content that can be entered – such as only allowing free text names, or only allowing selections from dropdowns for lists such as Security Classifications. This helps build a standard approach to documenting your data and ensures data assets can be easily compared.

Documenting additional fields

Many organisations completing a data inventory attempt to add extra fields to capture additional business knowledge about data. We recommend starting with the ONDC 26 Core Attributes before adding additional fields.

However, if you are a data manager conducting an inventory and want to alter this template to document additional fields you can do this by enabling the “Developer” tab and entering “Design Mode”. This will allow you to You can learn more about Microsoft Word Developer tools from the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Using Content Controls makes it easier to automatically and accurately extract content from Word documents and be uploaded to tools like the Aristotle Metadata Registry. To ensure any extra information you collect can be extracted, we recommend only adding extra fields to your template using Content Controls to ensure our software can extract these additional fields.

Documenting data lineage

All data comes from somewhere – whether it’s a system, a form, a report, or a new data product you’ve developed based on data you gathered from your organisation. That’s why we’ve added an extra section to the ONDC template to help you document the last critical key to your data – what data did you use to create your new data asset?

This makes your data make sense in 3 ways:

Makes it easier for others to understand how your data was created,

Reduces the risk that others will change the data you use without notifying you; and

Helps data managers find and document data that exists within your organisation.

Licensing

This template is provided under copyright and licensed by Aristotle Metadata under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) 4.0 License.

This means you are free to use, share and remix this template as much you like for as long as you like, provided you give attribution to Aristotle Metadata and share your template under the same terms.