  Metadata are critical in epidemiological and public health research. However,
a lack of biomedical metadata quality frameworks and limited awareness of the
implications of poor quality metadata renders data analyses problematic. In
this study, we created and evaluated a novel framework to assess metadata
quality of epidemiological and public health research datasets. We performed a
literature review and surveyed stakeholders to enhance our understanding of
biomedical metadata quality assessment. The review identified 11 studies and
nine quality dimensions; none of which were specifically aimed at biomedical
metadata. 96 individuals completed the survey; of those who submitted data,
most only assessed metadata quality sometimes, and eight did not at all. Our
framework has four sections: a) general information; b) tools and technologies;
c) usability; and d) management and curation. We evaluated the framework using
three test cases and sought expert feedback. The framework can assess
biomedical metadata quality systematically and robustly.
