Processing cross-national longitudinal panel surveys to document rich metadata using automation and open standards: the case of the Generations & Gender Programme

High quality metadata is a prerequisite for any data producer in contemporary research. The [Generations and Gender Programme][1] has a strong interest in this matter. The GGP is a cross-national (Europe and beyond) longitudinal survey providing data on a variety of topics including partnerships, fertility, work-life balance, transition to adulthood and later life. The documentation of the latest round of the survey (GGS-II) is in constant evolution to follow the latest FAIR best-practices, supported by the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) framework. The survey metadata are available in DDI-Lifecycle and hosted on [Colectica portal][2]. The challenge is to publish high quality metadata, following international standards, with a good level of FAIRness, through a fast and easy procedure, especially as the GGP is on the roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) and aims to become a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). This can be achieved by having a strong pipeline of automation. Therefore, this presentation will focus on how to develop this type of process, choose the good technical stack and have a robust quality control pipeline in order to go from raw data to comprehensive metadata using DDI Lifecycle, appropriate CESSDA controlled vocabulary and future developments. [1]: https://ggp-i.org [2]: https://ggp.colectica.org