Overview

The Sensor Common Metadata Specification (SCMS) is a community-driven metadata specification for describing sensors used in environmental exposure health research. It is a core deliverable of the SMARTER project (Sensors and Metadata for Analytics and Research in Exposure Health), a University of Utah project initiated in 2024 that develops shared, generalizable metadata and data management tools to support reproducible exposure health research. The SCMS builds on earlier work from the NIBIB-funded PRISMS program (Pediatric Research using Integrated Sensor Monitoring Systems).

Researchers increasingly use sensors to objectively measure environmental exposures and their effects on health. However, sensor data are heterogeneous — spanning physical, chemical, and biological signals across varied temporal and spatial scales — and there is currently a lack of consensus on metadata standards and conceptual models for the exposure domain. Without standardized metadata, it is difficult to find, assess, share, and reuse sensor-based exposure data in a FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) manner. The SCMS addresses this gap by providing a common structure for documenting sensors and their deployments.

Purpose

The SCMS is designed to:

Describe and document sensor characteristics that are important for sensor data use and reuse in environmental health research.

Core Domains

Instrument

The physical characteristics and capabilities of a sensor device.

Describe and document sensor deployments, capturing environmental and deployment attributes useful when analyzing measurements.

The specification is organized around three principal domains that follow the sensor lifecycle:

Support data quality assessment across different instruments and deployment environments .

Deployment

How a sensor device is set up and used in research data collection, including physical setup, mounting, and operational context

Support harmonization and integration of data collected from various sensors. .

Provide guidance for structuring and storing sensor output data .. ..

Output

The characteristics of sensor measurements, including data formats, storage, and calibration requirements.