what is Data entry

 Data entry is the process of digitizing data by entering it into a computer system for organization and management purposes. It is a person-based process^[1] and is "one of the important basic"^[2] tasks needed when no machine-readable version of the information is readily available for planned computer-based analysis or processing.^[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] Common errors in data entry include transposition errors, misclassified data, duplicate data, and omitted data, which are similar to bookkeeping error