01 A publisher of research objects
A mansion of well‑described knowledge.
meta + mahal
Metamahal publishes every kind of research object — books and chapters, datasets, software, AI models and their cards, proceedings, preprints, peer reviews, theses, courses and films — and gives each one a complete record: who made it, who paid for it, what it cites, how it may be reused and how it links to its other parts.
1Plan of the house
Eight rooms, one for each family of objects, around the record they all share. The dashed annex is for objects that have no record type of their own yet.
02 The gap
Registering a DOI takes six fields. Describing an object takes many more.
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Every kind of research object can already be registered.
Twelve registration agencies issue DOIs today1. Crossref lists eleven record types, from books to peer reviews2; DataCite’s schema names thirty-four resource types, from datasets and software to models, films and sound3.
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Registration itself asks for very little.
Six of DataCite’s twenty metadata properties are mandatory4. Crossref says it plainly: meeting its minimum requirements “only means that you have succeeded in registering your content and DOIs.”5
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The fields that make an object useful are the optional ones.
Crossref’s Participation Reports track eleven key elements — among them references, abstracts, ORCID iDs, ROR IDs, funding and licences — because “these key elements add context and richness, and help to open up content to easier discovery and wider and more varied use.”6
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And one piece of research is scattered.
The book, the data, the code and the model behind one project are often published in different places, each described in its own way, and the links between them are easy to lose.
Metamahal is built for that gap: one house for every kind of research object, each described in full and linked to its other parts.
6 properties required to register a DataCite DOI 14 more that describe the object — we fill every one that applies
03 The rooms
Eight rooms and an annex.
Each family of objects has its own review and its own record, registered with the agency that serves it: Crossref for books, chapters, reports, proceedings, theses, preprints and reviews; DataCite for datasets, software, models and audiovisual works.
04 Review
Review that fits the object.
A book
is read in full by at least two independent experts in its field, checked for originality, and cleared for every figure it borrows.
A dataset
is opened file by file and checked against its README and codebook, for personal data, for formats that will last, and for a licence that allows reuse.
A model
is checked against its model card, the rights to its training data, and an evaluation that someone else can repeat.
05 The name
metabeyond; data about data mahala mansion, a palace
A house with a room for every kind of research object, where each one is described well enough to be found, credited and reused. More about the name and the idea.
Have something that deserves a full record?
Tell us what it is. We reply with the review it needs, the record it will carry, a timeline and a quote. Asking costs nothing and commits you to nothing.