EML is a widely used, community supported XML schema that supports rich documentation of data related to ecological research, particularly including environmental, ecological, and earth science data. It is supported by The Knowledge Network for Biodiversity (KNB); more information may be found here. The EML available at this time is NEON’s first implementation of the schema and will continue to be improved. EML is valuable for batch-processing or integrating many data packages. KNB provides a stand-alone software package, Morpho, for generating EML-documented data packages. The emlpackage for reading and writing EML is available from rOpenSci,a community-driven organization that develops and provides free and open-source tools. Our Data Tutorials section includes Time Series 01: Why Metadata Are Important: How to Work with Metadata in Text & EML Formats well as numerous tutorials about R, python, and data.
