Summary Contact Requirements

The following compiles all of the required and recommended contact information for project and product metadata. This information is also listed in the specific metadata sections in the manual.

Locations for Contact Information

Once your contacts have been created in mdEditor, there are five places in a metadata record where you should add contacts.

Please see the corresponding sections for which contacts should be added where.

1. Main Tab / "Point of Contact” section

2. Main Tab / Citation / “Responsible Parties” section

3. Metadata Tab / “Contacts” section

4. Funding Tab / “Allocation” section. For Projects only.

5. Distribution Tab / "Contacts” section. For Products only.

Main / Point of Contact

Role	Contact	Required?
pointOfContact	FWS National Data Steward	Required
pointOfContact	your region Data Steward	Best Practice
pointOfContact	data steward	Required
custodian	data custodian	Best Practice
originator	data producer	Best Practice
owner	data trustee	Best Practice
principalInvestigator	The Project PI	Best Practice
administrator	FWS project officer	Required
administrator	FWS region	Required
administrator	FWS program	Best Practice

Main / Citation / Responsible Parties

This must include a point of contact, but may also include other responsible parties such as funders (including your LCC), partners, collaborators, and contributors. Collaborators could be intellectual participants while contributors could be intellectual and financial participants.

Role	Contact	Required?
principalInvestigator	The Project PI	Required

Metadata / Contacts

Role	Contact	Required?
author	See notes below	At least one is required
publisher	default is FWS	Required
pointOfContact	FWS SA National Data Steward	Required

Regarding Role of "author"

• The author does not necessarily have to be the data steward (e.g., metadata imported FGDC metadata can list the original author).

• "Author" can be an individual or an organization.

• You can enter your regional or program data manager as the “author”. If you prefer, you can use a generic data manager contact rather than an individual name.

• At least one contact with the role of “author” is required.

Funding / Allocation (for Projects only)

Source (Required)

Add the relevant contact for the “source” of the project funding. Source should be an organization, not an individual. For FWS projects, the default source is U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Regions or programs should be added as the funding "administrator" in the Other Contacts field.

Funding source should always identify the agency or organization, rather than a sub-program or office. For example, all funding from other FWS programs need to list U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the source (and not list the source as Fisheries, specific Refuges, ES, etc.). Clarifications on the exact program or office where the funding came from can be done through the Funding/Other Contacts field (and choose the role of "administrator").

Recipient (Required)

Add the relevant contact for the “recipient” of the project funding. Recipient should always be an organization, not an individual. For example, the Principal Investigator would not be listed as the recipient, but their organization would be. If there are multiple recipients for a project, they should be added as separate allocations.

The Principal Investigator may be added in the Other Contacts field as "principalInvestigator."

Funding administrator can also be used to differentiate funding from different programs/offices within the same agency. For example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can be identified as the funding source and the funding administrator could include "Ecological Services" or a specific field office.

Distribution (for Products only)

• Add the relevant contact for “distributor” of the product.