Data entry, a person-based process,[1] is "one of the important basic"[2] tasks needed when no machine-readable version of the information for planned computer-based analysis or processing is readily available.[3]
Sometimes what is needed is "information about information (that) can be greater than the value of the information itself."[4] It can also involve filling in required information which is then "data-entered" from what was written on the research document, such as the growth in available items in a category.[4]:68 This is a higher level of abstraction[5] than Metadata, "information about data."[6]