Metadata standards are useful to structure metadata in a commonly agreed way within a research discipline.  It is a way to categorize the necessary information about data within in a specific research domain. Often it is not the same information that is relevant within different domains. The easiest way to provide clear metadata is to use discipline specific metadata standards.

When choosing a repository to upload your data in, the different repositories often use different types of metadata standards. A discipline specific repository often uses a discipline specific metadata standard. Whereas a general repository uses a more general metadata standard that suits all research disciplines.

The most important thing when uploading data to a repository is that you try to fill in as much metadata about the data as possible, whether it is in a discipline specific or general repository.

If you are not yet aware of any metadata standards used in your research area, you could ask around and check these websites: