### Ecological Metadata Language (EML)

Ecological Metadata Language (EML) is a metadata specification developed by the ecology discipline and for the ecology discipline. It is based on prior work done by the Ecological Society of America and associated efforts (Michener et al., 1997, Ecological Applications). EML is implemented as a series of XML document types that can by used in a modular and extensible manner to document ecological data. Each EML module is designed to describe one logical part of the total metadata that should be included with any ecological dataset.

Send any comments, errors, or suggestions to eml-dev@ecoinformatics.org or through the EML Bug Tracking system. The preferred way to submit problems with EML or feature requests is the bug tracking system.

#### EML Version 2.1.1

You can access the EML specification online by reading it in HTML format, or you can download the entire specification, including both the HTML documentation and the XML Schema files.

- EML 2.1.1 Specification -- Read it online

  OR

- Download EML
  The download consists of the EML modules, described in the XML Schema language. In addition, the full documentation on the modules is provided in HTML format.

- Changes to EML in version 2.1.1

- EML Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

- Validation service for EML
  In addition to the online service found at the previous link, the EML distribution itself contains the validation software for your use (see "lib/runEMLParser" for details on how to run it).

#### About the EML Project

The EML project is an open source, community oriented project dedicated to providing a high-quality metadata specification for describing data relevant to the ecological discipline. The project is completely comprised of voluntary project members who donate their time and experience in order to advance information management for ecology. Project decisions are made by consensus according to the voting procedures described in the ecoinformatics.org Charter.

We welcome contributions to this work in any form. Individuals who invest substantial amounts of time and make valuable contributions to the development and maintenance of EML (in the opinion of current project members) will be invited to become EML project members according to the rules set forth in the ecoinformatics.org Charter. Contributions can take many forms, including the development of the EML schemas, writing documentation, and helping with maintenance, among others.

#### Development Information

Developers may be interested in browsing the source code SVN repository that we use in developing EML. This always contains the most recent development version of EML, and therefore may be in flux, or otherwise broken. It is unlikely that it will contain the same files that are in the current release (2.1.1). Use at your own risk. Write access to this repository is reserved for EML project members. We welcome contributions to this work in any form. Contributions can take many forms, including the development of the EML schemas, writing documentation, and helping with maintenance, among others. Non-project members can contribute by submitting their feedback, revisions, fixes, code, or any other contribution through the eml-dev@ecoinformatics.org mailing list, or through the EML Bug Tracking system. The preferred way to submit problems with EML or feature requests is the bug tracking system.

#### Older versions (deprecated)

The following versions are still available for reference purposes, although they have been superseded by the current version (2.1.1). Please make every effort to use the current version.

- EML 2.1.0
- EML 2.0.1
- EML 2.0.0
- EML 1.4.1