A Standard Metadata Template for Representing Soil Specimens

This dataset contains a standard template for representing the metadata of soil specimens in the CSIRO Mineral Resources Discovery program. The template includes core properties of samples such as their name, identifier, type, and location, as well as associated metadata such as project, drilling contexts, hazard declaration and physical storage. The template will be used to catalogue legacy and specimens systematically collected through mineral exploration projects. It has been developed iteratively, revised, and improved based on feedback from researchers and lab technicians. This standardized template can prevent duplicate sample metadata entry and lower metadata redundancy, thereby improving the program's physical sample curation and discovery.Lineage: This template was built on the CMR rock metadata template (https://doi.org/10.25919/2prf-dk88).The template includes a readme section summarising all the metadata fields, including their requirements and definitions. The template incorporates several established controlled terms representing, e.g., sample type, mineral type, EPSG and hazard information to ensure consistency in metadata entry. The template also contains few metadata fields that are specific to soil samples like soil size fraction, soil type, etc.