Possibility to define content of metadata fields and make them non-editable

[philippconzett]

The admin of a Dataverse can configure which metadata fields that should be available for depositors. Also, an admin can create datset templates with pre-filled values. In addition to these useful features, I'd like to be able to the define the content of metadata fields and configure these fields as non-editable by depositors. An example of such a field is the Distributor field, which in our Dataverse installation as a rule contains the name of the (sub-)dataverse. In most dataverses, we add this name to the dataset template(s). But in some dataverses we are not using dataset templates. In any case, we experience that depositors add incorrect names to this field, both when using dataset templates where this field is pre-filled and in cases where no template is available. The possibility to define the content of metadata fields and make them non-editable would enable us to avoid this problem.

I think this feature could be implemented either in the the Metadata Field section in the General Information menu, or in the way dataset templates are defined.