Metadata: Understanding the metadata dates displayed for datasets on the Defra Data Services Platform (DSP) and Data.Gov.Uk

Created: 23 September 2020 Updated: 01 April 2021

Data Services Platform:

Metadata record explanation on the DSP:

Creation Date: This represents the date the dataset was first created. The dataset may contain data collected/created prior to this date but the creation date represents the date the dataset was first created as a product.

Revision Date: This date represents the date the data was last updated. However, it should be noted that this value is updated manually in the metadata record for the dataset so may not always be 100% reliable, particularly for datasets which are updated frequently (see Update Frequency).

Publication Date: This represents the date the dataset was first published by the publishing organisation.

Update Frequency: This indicates how often the data is updated. For datasets which are updated regularly e.g. daily, continually, weekly, fortnightly or monthly this may be a better indicator of the currency of a dataset than the Revision Date. Update Frequency is a mandatory data field so will always have a value that indicates how often the data is updated.

Please Note: Creation, Revision and Publication dates are all optional (as opposed to mandatory) data fields and are currently updated manually in all instances. As such there may be inaccuracies in the date displayed. We are working to improve the accuracy of the dates displayed against our datasets.

Last Updated date on http://data.gov.uk:

This site displays an additional “Last Updated” date. The date shown indicates when the contents of the metadata record displayed on http://data.gov.uk was last updated. The “Last Updated” date does not describe the currency of the data, only its metadata. For example, if http://data.gov.uk picks up a change in the metadata record provided by a publisher (e.g. a change in the summary, or licensing information), the “Last Updated” date is updated, even if the underlying dataset which is accessed from the record has not changed. This issue has been raised with http://data.gov.uk and will be addressed in future releases.

http://Data.gov.uk displays the dates shown above (Creation, Revision, Publication) and the Update Frequency, in the “View additional metadata” section.

Revision Date is a more reliable indicator of the latest update date for a dataset than the “Last Updated” date shown on http://data.gov.uk.