Single Integrated Metadata Structure (SIMS)

The Single Integrated Metadata Structure (SIMS) is a comprehensive metadata inventory for metadata and quality reporting in the European Statistical System (ESS). IRES cites it as one such comprehensive inventory among the “numerous metadata items that describe a statistical series” that countries and organizations have developed as templates, lists or inventories for presenting the concepts, definitions and descriptions of methods used in the collection, compilation, transformation, revision, dissemination and evaluation of their statistics [IRES, Ch. IX, para. 9.37, PDF p. 139, 2018]. SIMS’s methodological and quality metadata items are presented in full in Box 9.3, drawn from the Technical Manual of the Single Integrated Metadata Structure (SIMS) [IRES, Ch. IX, Box 9.3 n.75, PDF p. 140, 2018].

confidence: medium — this page currently covers only SIMS’s role as the worked example of a comprehensive metadata inventory named in Chapter IX Section D; its governance, adoption history within the ESS, and relationship to other ESS quality/metadata instruments (e.g., the ESS Standard Quality and Performance Indicators referenced in Quality Measurement and Reporting) are not yet drawn from the source and may be expanded if a document treating SIMS directly enters the corpus.

Box 9.3 — Metadata items for statistical releases (SIMS)

Reproduced in full [IRES, Ch. IX, Box 9.3, PDF p. 140, 2018]:

SIMS code	Survey/product name
S.1	Contact (organization, contact person, address, email, phone, fax)
S.2	Introduction
S.3	Metadata update (last certified, last posted and last update)
S.4	Statistical presentation
S.4.1	Data description
S.4.2	Classification system
S.4.3	Sector coverage
S.4.4	Statistical concepts and definitions
S.4.5	Statistical unit
S.4.6	Statistical population
S.4.7	Reference area
S.4.8	Time coverage
S.4.9	Base period
S.5	Unit of measure
S.6	Reference period
S.7	Institutional mandate (legal acts and other agreements, data sharing)
S.8	Confidentiality (policy, data treatment)
S.9	Release policy (release calendar, calendar access, user access)
S.10	Frequency of dissemination
S.11	Dissemination format, accessibility and clarity (News release, publications, online database, micro-data access, other)
S.12	Accessibility of documentation (documentation on methodology, quality documentation)
S.13	Quality management (quality assurance, quality assessment)
S.14	Relevance (user needs, user satisfaction, completeness)
S.15	Accuracy and reliability (overall accuracy, sampling error, non-sampling error (coverage errors, measurement errors, non-response errors, processing errors, model assumption errors))
S.16	Timeliness (time lag to final results) and punctuality (delivery and publication)
S.17	Comparability (geographical, over time)
S.18	Coherence (cross-domain, internal)
S.19	Cost and burden
S.20	Data revision (policy, practice)
S.21	Statistical processing
S.21.1	Source data
S.21.2	Frequency of data collection
S.21.3	Data collection
S.21.4	Data validation
S.21.5	Data compilation
S.21.6	Adjustments
S.21.61	Seasonal adjustment

[IRES, Ch. IX, Box 9.3, PDF p. 140, 2018]

Note the parallel between SIMS items S.13–S.19 and the nine quality dimensions/quality-report material of Chapter IX Section C: S.14 relevance, S.15 accuracy and reliability, S.16 timeliness and punctuality, S.17 comparability, S.18 coherence, and S.13 quality management together mirror the same dimension-by-dimension structure used in Box 9.2.

Related

• Metadata — the Chapter IX Section D concept page this box illustrates; structural vs. reference metadata and the metadata pyramid
• IRES Chapter IX — Data Quality Assurance and Metadata — the Chapter IX digest this page supports

Note: Eurostat (the ESS body SIMS is associated with) does not yet have a dedicated entity page in this wiki; no cross-link is made pending one.