Help - What are 'registration statuses'?

The ISO 11179 standards defines a range of registration status levels that help users of a registry understand the endorsement of metadata for its use in certain domains. Within the 11179 standard, these levels are given using broad criteria that allow registration authorities to specify the exact meaning of each status level.

The Aristotle Metadata Registry allows registration authorities to record the meaning of status levels so that users looking for metadata can quickly determine the who has endorsed metadata and for what purpose. By clicking the name of a registration authority a user can quickly jump to the registration authority home page to see their definitions for each status level.

For example:

Then, if a user sees metadata item (such as a question or unknown model - [[data element]]) with the status of 'standard', they can be certain that it is endorsed for use when dealing with education data at a federal level.

Below is an extract from ISO/IEC 11179-6 that explains status levels in more depth.

ISO/IEC 11179-6 : Section 4.4.2

4.4.2 Summary of registration status categories

Registration status specifies the state of an Administered Item that is in the metadata register, in the view of the Registration Authority. Registration status categories shall apply to individual Administered Items that have been registered in the metadata register by the Registration Authority. Registration status categories are of two sub-types: lifecycle and documentation. The lifecycle registration status categories address improvement and progression towards levels of perfection of the quality of the metadata of the item and of the preferences of usage of the Administered Item. The documentation registration status categories are used to denote positions at which there will be no more progression in quality of metadata or use of the Administered Item. The relationships among these status categories, along with the requirements for an Administered Item to achieve a particular registration status level, are presented in Table 1.

Administered Item registration status category	Status criteria
	Lifecycle statuses
Preferred Standard	The Registration Authority confirms that the Administered Item is preferred for use within the community that uses this metadata register.
Standard	The Registration Authority confirms that the Administered Item is of sufficient quality and of broad interest for use in the community that uses this metadata register.
Qualified	The Registration Authority has confirmed that the mandatory metadata attributes are complete and the mandatory metadata attributes conform to applicable quality requirements.
Recorded	The Registration Authority has confirmed that all mandatory metadata attributes have been completed
Candidate	The Administered Item has been proposed for progression through the registration levels.
Incomplete	Submitter wishes to make the community that uses this metadata register aware of the existence of an Administered Item in their local domain.
Retired	The Registration Authority has approved the Administered Item as no longer recommended for use in the community that uses this metadata register and should no longer be used.
Superseded	The Registration Authority determined that the Administered Item is no longer recommended for use by the community that uses this metadata register, and a successor Administered Item is now preferred for use.
	Documentation statuses
Historical	The Submitter wishes to make the community that uses this metadata register aware of the existence of an Administered Item that was used in the past.
Application	The Registration Authority wishes to make the community that uses this metadata register aware of the existence of an Administered Item in their local domain that is in an application system and is not specified at the logical level. This item may be very well described.

While the general intent is to progress as many Administered Items as possible from “Incomplete” to the “Preferred Standard” registration status, progression to a status higher than “Recorded” or “Qualified” may not be appropriate. That is, necessary metadata attribute documentation for an Administered Item may not be available to establish required documentation for the “Recorded” status, may not be of the quality necessary for the “Qualified” status, or identification as “Preferred Standard” Administered Item may not be appropriate.