Representing and publishing physical sample descriptions

• A metadata model for physical samples and sample collections is presented.
• The model was developed by CSIRO for its role as an allocating agent.
• It is generic, extensible and publicly available.
• It has been applied to register samples and publish their metadata on the Web.
• The results demonstrate that the model works in practice.

This paper presents a metadata model for physical samples, developed by CSIRO for its role as an allocating agent. The model is essential for connecting various samples to the Web in a systematic manner. It serves as a basis for registering and publishing samples from researchers and laboratories in CSIRO with the International Geo Sample Number (IGSN). The model is simple, extensible and publicly available. We specify how existing controlled vocabularies are incorporated into the model development, and discuss their relevance and limitations. We also describe the mappings between the developed model and existing standards. This is necessary to extend the model's adoption across various science domains. The model has been implemented and tested in the context of two large sample repositories in CSIRO. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the metadata model while maintaining its flexibility to adapt to various sample types.