Overview
ISO/IEC 11179-6:2023 - part of the ISO/IEC 11179 Metadata Registries (MDR) series - defines the information, conditions and procedures required to register metadata items in a metadata registry. The standard focuses on the registry’s common facilities: administration, identification, naming and definition of registry items and the registration lifecycle. It supports multiple identifier schemes (including approaches based on ISO/IEC 6523 and IRDI concepts referenced in Annex A) and applies to items defined across ISO/IEC 11179 parts and ISO/IEC 19763, as well as locally defined metadata types managed by Registration Authorities (RAs).
Key topics and requirements
- Scope of registration: Specifies what metadata must be recorded for each registered item (common administrative and identification metadata) while excluding item‑specific metadata (e.g., detailed data element/value domain attributes).
- Metamodel alignment: Builds on the common‑facilities metamodel in ISO/IEC 11179‑3 to ensure consistent representation of registry items.
- Registration records: Each registered item is represented by a record documenting administration, identification, naming and definition plus any item‑specific details.
- Item types and relationships: Distinguishes administered items (have their own registration state) from attached items (inherit the administered item’s state).
- Registration status and administration: Defines status categories, administrative states and criteria for registration levels and conformance (see Table 1 and Clause 4).
- Procedures and governance: Recommends procedures, roles and responsibilities for Registration Authorities, stewardship and submitting organizations (Annexes B–E provide suggested operating procedures and FAQs).
- Conformance and availability: Addresses registry views, languages, contents and levels of conformance without prescribing system design, file formats or implementation technologies.
Practical applications and who uses it
ISO/IEC 11179‑6 is practical for organizations and initiatives that need structured, governed metadata for interoperable information exchange:
- Registration Authorities and national standards bodies - establish and manage authoritative metadata registries.
- Data governance teams and metadata architects - implement registration processes and registration records that support reuse and traceability.
- Enterprise IT and system architects - align system metadata with an international metamodel for semantic interoperability.
- Standards developers and integrators - harmonize metadata types across ISO/IEC 11179 parts and ISO/IEC 19763 artifacts.
- Consortia and multi‑agency programs - coordinate identifiers, naming and registration states for shared data assets.
Benefits include improved metadata consistency, unique identification of assets, better reuse and harmonization across domains, and clearer governance for administered vs attached items.
Related standards
- ISO/IEC 11179‑1 / ‑3 / ‑31 / ‑32 / ‑33 / ‑34 / ‑35 - other parts of the MDR series covering metamodels and item types.
- ISO/IEC 19763 - metamodels for semantic interoperability (ontologies, mappings, models).
- ISO/IEC 6523 - identifier schemes for organizations (informative Annex A linkage).
