Metadata represents information, relationships, and connections
Examples:
- A person authors a paper
- A paper cites a dataset
- A person is affiliated with an institution
- An institution funds a research output
- A dataset is compiled/created by software
This is a list of core metadata properties chosen for accurate and consistent identification of a resource for citation and retrieval purposes, with recommended use instructions in the documentation. The resource that is being identified can be of any kind.
Obligation: Mandatory
Occurrences: 1
Definition: The Identifier is a unique string that identifies a resource.
For software, determine whether the identifier is for a specific version of a piece of software, (per the Force11 Software Citation Principles 2), or for all versions.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) registered by a DataCite Member. The format should be 10.21384/foo.
Sub-properties:
- 1.a identifierType
Obligation: Mandatory
Occurrences: 1-n
Definition: The main researchers involved in producing the data, or the authors of the publication, in priority order. For instruments this is the manufacturer or developer of the instrument. To supply multiple creators, repeat this property.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
May be a corporate/institutional or personal name. Note: DataCite infrastructure supports up to 10,000 names. For name lists above that size, consider attribution via linking to the related metadata.
Sub-properties:
- 2.1 creatorName
- 2.1.a nameType
- 2.2 givenName
- 2.3 familyName
- 2.4 nameIdentifier
- 2.4.a nameIdentifierScheme
- 2.4.b schemeURI
- 2.5 affiliation
- 2.5.a affiliationIdentifier
- 2.5.b affiliationIdentifierScheme
- 2.5.c schemeURI
Obligation: Mandatory
Occurrences: 1-n
Definition: A name or title by which a resource is known. May be the title of a dataset or the name of a piece of software or an instrument.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Free text.
Sub-properties:
- 3.a titleType
Obligation: Mandatory
Occurrences: 1
Definition: The name of the entity that holds, archives, publishes, prints, distributes, releases, issues, or produces the resource. This property will be used to formulate the citation, so consider the prominence of the role.
For software, use Publisher for the code repository. If there is an entity other than a code repository, that “holds, archives, publishes, prints, distributes, releases, issues, or produces” the code, use the property 7. Contributor with contributorType “HostingInstitution” for the code repository.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Examples:
- World Data Center for Climate (WDCC)
- GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ)
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
- University of Tokyo
- GitHub
Sub-properties:
- 4.a publisherIdentifier
- 4.b publisherIdentifierScheme
- 4.c schemeURI
Obligation: Mandatory
Occurrences: 1
Definition: The year when the data was or will be made publicly available. In the case of resources such as software or dynamic data where there may be multiple releases in one year, include the Date property and sub-properties (dateType/dateInformation) to provide more information about the publication or release date details.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
YYYY
If an embargo period has been in effect, use the date when the embargo period ends. In the case of datasets, “publish” is understood to mean making the data available on a specific date to the community of researchers. If there is no standard publication year value, use the date that would be preferred from a citation perspective.
PublicationYear—Additional guidance
PublicationYear : the year when the data was or will be made publicly available. In the case of datasets, “publish” is understood to mean making the data available on a specific date to the community of researchers.
- If that date cannot be determined, use the date of registration.
- If an embargo period has been in effect, use the date when the embargo period ends.
- If there is no standard publication year value, use the date that would be preferred from a citation perspective.
- In the case of resources such as software or dynamic data where there may be multiple releases in one year, include the Date property and sub-properties (dateType/dateInformation) to provide more information about the publication or release date details.
In the case of a digitised version of a physical object
If the DOI is being used to identify a digitised version of an original item, the recommended approach is to supply the PublicationYear for the digital version and not the original object.
The 3. Title field may be used to convey the approximate or known date of the original object. Other metadata properties available for additional date information about the object include 6. Subject and 17. Description. However, only 3. Title will be part of the citation.
Here are two examples of citations using dates or date information in the titles.
Schmidt, S., Andersen, V., Belviso, S., & Marty, J.-C. (2002). Dissolved and particulate thorium 234 concentration at time series station DYFAMED from date 1995-05-07 (Data set). PANGAEA – Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science. https://doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.183607
Tape, K. D. (2015). Aerial Images of Alaska’s Arctic Coastal Plain; 1948-1949. U.S. Geological Survey. (Image). https://doi.org/10.5066/f79021tb
Obligation: Recommended
Occurrences: 0-n
Definition: Subject, keyword, classification code, or key phrase describing the resource.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Free text.
Sub-properties:
- 6.a subjectScheme
- 6.b schemeURI
- 6.c valueURI
- 6.d classificationCode
Obligation: Recommended
Occurrences: 0-n
Definition: The institution or person responsible for collecting, managing, distributing, or otherwise contributing to the development of the resource. To supply multiple contributors, repeat this property.
For software, if there is an alternate entity that “holds, archives, publishes, prints, distributes, releases, issues, or produces” the code, use the contributorType “HostingInstitution” for the code repository.
For instruments, if there is an institution responsible for the management of the instrument (for example, the legal owner, the operator, or an institute providing access to the instrument), use the contributorType “HostingInstitution” for the owner of the instrument.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Note: DataCite infrastructure supports up to 10,000 names. For name lists above that size, consider attribution via linking to the related metadata.
Examples: Charpy, Antoine; Foo Data Center
Sub-properties:
- 7.a contributorType
- 7.1 contributorName
- 7.1.a nameType
- 7.2 givenName
- 7.3 familyName
- 7.4 nameIdentifier
- 7.4.a nameIdentifierScheme
- 7.4.b schemeURI
- 7.5 affiliation
- 7.5.a affiliationIdentifier
- 7.5.b affiliationIdentifierScheme
- 7.5.c schemeURI
Obligation: Recommended
Occurrences: 0-n
Definition: Different dates relevant to the work.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY- MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD or any other format or level of granularity described in W3CDTF. Use RKMS-ISO8601 standard for depicting date ranges.
Example: 2004-03-02/2005- 06-02.
Years before 0000 must be prefixed with a – sign, e.g., -0054 to indicate 55 BC.
Sub-properties:
- 8.a dateType
- 8.b dateInformation
Obligation: Optional
Occurrences: 0-1
Definition: The primary language of the resource.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Recommended values are taken from IETF BCP 47, ISO 639-1 language codes. Examples: en, de, fr
Obligation: Mandatory
Occurrences: 1
Definition: A description of the resource.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Free text. The recommended content is a single term of some detail so that a pair can be formed with the resourceTypeGeneral sub-property. For example, a resourceType of “Census Data” paired with a resourceTypeGeneral of “Dataset” yields “Dataset/Census Data”.
Sub-properties:
- 10.a resourceTypeGeneral
Obligation: Optional
Occurrences: 0-n
Definition: An identifier other than the primary Identifier applied to the resource being registered. This may be any alphanumeric string which is unique within its domain of issue. May be used for local identifiers, a serial number of an instrument or an inventory number. The AlternateIdentifier should be an additional identifier for the same instance of the resource (i.e., same location, same file).
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Free text.
Example: E-GEOD-34814
Sub-properties:
- 11.a alternateIdentifierType
Obligation: Recommended
Occurrences: 0-n
Definition: Identifiers of related resources. These must be globally unique identifiers.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Free text.
Note: DataCite Event Data collects all references to related resources based on the relatedIdentifier property.
Sub-properties:
- 12.a relatedIdentifierType
- 12.b relationType
- 12.c relatedMetadataScheme
- 12.d schemeURI
- 12.e schemeType
- 12.f resourceTypeGeneral
Obligation: Optional
Occurrences: 0-n
Definition: Size (e.g., bytes, pages, inches, etc.) or duration (extent), e.g., hours, minutes, days, etc., of a resource.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Free text.
Examples: “15 pages”, “6 MB”, “45 minutes”
Obligation: Optional
Occurrences: 0-n
Definition: Technical format of the resource.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Free text.
Use file extension or MIME type where possible, e.g., PDF, XML, MPG or application/pdf, text/xml, video/mpeg.
Obligation: Optional
Occurrences: 0-1
Definition: The version number of the resource.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Suggested practice: track major_version.minor_version. Register a new identifier for a major version change. Individual stewards need to determine which are major vs. minor versions 1.
Software engineering practice follows this approach of tracking changes and giving new version numbers.
May be used in conjunction with properties 11. AlternateIdentifier and 12. RelatedIdentifier to indicate various information updates. May be used in conjunction with property 17. Description to indicate the nature and file/record range of version.
Obligation: Optional
Occurrences: 0-n
Definition: Any rights information for this resource.
The property may be repeated to record complex rights characteristics.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Free text.
Provide a rights management statement for the resource or reference a service providing such information. Include embargo information if applicable.
Use the complete title of a license and include version information if applicable.
May be used for software licenses.
Examples:
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
- Apache License, Version 2.0
Sub-properties:
- 16.a rightsURI
- 16.b rightsIdentifier
- 16.c rightsIdentifierScheme
- 16.d schemeURI
Obligation: Optional
Occurrences: 0-n
Definition: Any rights information for this resource.
The property may be repeated to record complex rights characteristics.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Free text.
Provide a rights management statement for the resource or reference a service providing such information. Include embargo information if applicable.
Use the complete title of a license and include version information if applicable.
May be used for software licenses.
Examples:
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
- Apache License, Version 2.0
Sub-properties:
- 16.a rightsURI
- 16.b rightsIdentifier
- 16.c rightsIdentifierScheme
- 16.d schemeURI
Obligation: Recommended
Occurrences: 0-n
Definition: Spatial region or named place where the data was gathered or about which the data is focused.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Repeat this property to indicate several different locations.
Sub-properties:
- 18.1 geoLocationPoint
- 18.1.1 pointLongitude
- 18.1.2 pointLatitude
- 18.2 geoLocationBox
- 18.2.1 westBoundLongitude
- 18.2.2 eastBoundLongitude
- 18.2.3 southBoundLatitude
- 18.2.4 northBoundLatitude
- 18.3 geoLocationPlace
- 18.4 geoLocationPolygon
- 18.4.1 polygonPoint
- 18.4.1.1 pointLongitude
- 18.4.1.2 pointLatitude
- 18.4.2 inPolygonPoint
- 18.4.2.1 pointLongitude
- 18.4.2.2 pointLatitude
- 18.4.1 polygonPoint
Obligation: Optional
Occurrences: 0-n
Definition: Information about financial support (funding) for the resource being registered.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
It is a best practice to supply funding information when financial support has been received.
Sub-properties:
- 19.1 funderName
- 19.2 funderIdentifier
- 19.2.a funderIdentifierType
- 19.2.b schemeURI
- 19.3 awardNumber
- 19.3.a awardURI
- 19.4 awardTitle
Occurrences: 0-n
Definition: Information about a resource related to the one being registered.
Allowed values, examples, other constraints:
Can be used to provide series information or a text citation where the related resource does not have an identifier. However, it is also optional to provide an identifier here.
Sub-properties:
- 20.a relatedItemType
- 20.b relationType
- 20.1 relatedItemIdentifier
- 20.1.a relatedItemIdentifierType
- 20.1.b relatedMetadataScheme
- 20.1.c schemeURI
- 20.1.d schemeType
- 20.2 creator
- 20.2.1 creatorName
- 20.2.1.a nameType
- 20.2.2 givenName
- 20.2.3 familyName
- 20.2.1 creatorName
- 20.3 title
- 20.3.a titleType
- 20.4 publicationYear
- 20.5 volume
- 20.6 issue
- 20.7 number
- 20.7.a numberType
- 20.8 firstPage
- 20.9 lastPage
- 20.10 publisher
- 20.11 edition
- 20.12 contributor
- 20.12.a contributorType
- 20.12.1 contributorName
- 20.12.1.a nameType
- 20.12.2 givenName
- 20.12.3 familyName