dc-srap

Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Scholarly Resources Application Profile (SRAP)

Authors:
Karen Coyle, DCMI
Osma Suominen, National Library of Finland

Collaborators
Jan Ashton, British Library
Juha Hakala
Alasdair MacDonald, University of Edinburgh

Table of Contents

Introduction

The aim of the Scholarly Resources Application Profile (SRAP) proposal is to enable the description of scholarly resources, such as doctoral dissertations or scientific articles, with Dublin Core Metadata Terms, supplemented with some terms from other vocabularies maintained by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. This proposal is informed by a) Scholarly Works Application Profile (SWAP12), which was developed by UKOLN with JISC funding in 2006, and b) Finnish metadata guidelines for text documents in institutional repositories3 (available only in Finnish).

There is significant overlap between SRAP, the RIOXX application profile4, the Finnish guidelines, and the British Library’s ETHOS specification5. This is not surprising since they share the same aim, support for description of scholarly resources. There are probably many local application profiles developed by universities and other institutions of higher education for the same purpose. Adding SRAP properties to the DCMI Metadata Terms will reduce duplicate effort in application profile development and maintenance in the future, and improve semantic interoperability between Dublin Core -based metadata produced by institutions of higher education.

The SRAP application profile proposal is intended to be globally applicable. Many suggested properties are already in use by related communities. There are new properties for e.g. creator and contributor roles, but these have been adopted from MARC 21. SRAP draft contains also recommendations for SRAP-related semantic refinements to some existing Dublin Core Terms properties, in order to make them more suitable for use in the description of scholarly resources.

The terms MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL used in the table below should be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

Domain model

SRAP’s domain model includes these entities and how they are related.

The model can be used for stand-alone documents, like books, theses, technical reports, and for documents that are contained within larger publications, such as journal articles and book chapters. There is a required bibliographic description of the scholarly work. Where appropriate, one can encode metadata elements that represent a serial or monographic resource in which the scholarly work is contained. Persons, organizations, and grants are also resources that may be needed to describe the scholarly work.

DCTAP

SRAP is expressed in a table format as a Dublin Core Tabular Application Profile (TAP). The TAP expresses the above elements of SRAP in a structured, machine actionable format that can be used for data creation and for basic data validation. The TAP includes details on value types of the properties, like “date” and “string”, and has notes on usage. Refer to the TAP for specific information on properties used, values, and recommended value lists to use.

In the DCTAP, each of the entities of the domain model are represented as “shapes”. Each shape has associated properties and the rules that govern the creation and use of the property.

The following term prefixes are used in this document and in the TAP document:

NOTE: The selection of properties used in SRAP has been limited to DC Terms and BIBO properties. Where appropriate properties were not found in those vocabularies the prefix srap: is used. These latter properties will be discussed with the DCMI Usage Board to find or create the needed properties.

Scholarly resource shape

The Scholarly resource shape is the describes the focus resource. This resource may be a stand-alone document, such as a thesis, a technical report, or a book. It may be instead a resource that is located within another resource, such as a book chapter within a book, or a journal article within a journal.

Primary Bibliographic Elements

The basic bibliographic elements are available to be used to describe stand-alone and contained works, with two exceptions: the use of dct:publisher and dct:partOf. These will be explained below.

These basic bibliographic description elements SHOULD be used to describe the scholarly resource:

dct:type, dct:language, dct:contributor, dct:creator, dct:publisher, dct:subject, dct:title, dct:format, dct:abstract, dct:tableOfContents, dct:description

dct:type

The type or genre of a scholarly resource, when known, SHOULD be indicated using the dct:type property whose value SHOULD be be an IRI from the COAR Resource Type vocabulary. Example values from the vocabulary include journal article, book part and master thesis.

dct:language

The language of the resource, when known, SHOULD be indicated using the dct:language property. The language SHOULD be an IETF BCP 47 language tag. When the resource includes content in multiple languages, the dct:language property MAY be repeated in order to indicate all the languages.

dct:creator

A repeatable property for the person or organization that is primarily responsible for the creation of the resource. It is RECOMMENDED that the value of this property is a Person shape or an Organization shape. Alternatively, the value MAY be the name of the creator as a literal value.

dct:contributor

A repeatable property for the person or organization that has secondary or non-specific responsibility for the creation of the resource. It is RECOMMENDED that the value of this property is a Person shape or an Organization shape. Alternatively, the value MAY be the name of the contributor as a literal value.

dct:publisher

A property for the person or organization that is responsible for the publication of the resource. It is RECOMMENDED that the value of this property is an Organization shape. Alternatively, the value MAY be the name of the publisher as a literal value.

NOTE: dct:publisher here is used when the resource being described is not contained in a larger resource. For example, a technical report would be described with dct:publisher at this level. For contained works, the containing resource (periodical or monograph) SHOULD be described with its publisher.

dct:title

The title or name of the resource, which is usually available on the resource itself, SHOULD be recorded in dct:title.

dct:format

The physical format of the resource SHOULD be indicated in dct:format. It is recommended that a standard list, such as the Internet Media Types (MIME) be used.

dct:subject

dct:subject MAY be used to add keywords, subject terms, or identifiers of terms from subject vocabulary lists.

Description properties

These description properties MAY be used to provide additional information about the scholarly work.

dct:abstract

The dct:abstract is a resource summary and is often found in the content of the resource itself. It MAY be included in the SRAP metadata.

dct:tableOfContents

The dct:tableOfContents is a listing of the significant sections within the resource. It MAY be included for standand-alone resources that have relevant section headings.

dct:description

The dct:description MAY be used for any general description of the resource. This can be an account of the contents of the resource or any other description or context that may aid in searching or selection of the resource.

bibo:presentedAt

bibo:presentedAt MAY be used to record information about the conference or meeting where the scholarly work was presented. The value can be the name of the event or an IRI identifying the event. Describing the event itself is outside the scope of SRAP.

dct:bibliographicCitation

dct:bibliographicCitation MAY be used to provide a preferred citation for the scholarly work.

Linking properties

dct:relation

Scholarly resources may be based on, or otherwise associated with, software applications and/or data sets that are also stored or deposited. For example, an article may be based on software experiments and the underlying data sets may be published separately. SRAP enables linking the resources with dct:relation. Preferably the related resource will have an identifier that can be used to make this link.

dct:isPartOf

Journal articles and book chapters may be contained within a larger publication that is either published serially or as a monograph. dct:isPartOf will have as its value the periodical shape or book shape for the containing publication.

Date and version properties

These date properties SHOULD be used to represent important dates in the life cycle of the resource:

dct:date, dct:issued, dct:modified, dct:dateAccepted, srap:dateRetracted, srap:embargoDateRange, srap:versionType

All available and relevant dates SHOULD be used. The dates SHOULD be in one of these standard ISO 8601 formats:

YYYY YYYY-MM YYYY-MM-DD

dct:date

The dct:date property is generic and SHOULD NOT be used when more specific dates are known.

dct:issued

dct:issued, SHOULD be used to indicate when the resource was issued.

dct:modified

dct:modified SHOULD be used to record when the resource was modified or updated.

dct:dateAccepted

dct:dateAccepted SHOULD be used for the date that the resource was accepted for publication.

srap:dateRetracted

srap:dateRetracted properties SHOULD be used to record the date on which the resource was retracted from publication.

srap:versionType

srap:versionType MAY be used to encode the version of a work. It is recommended to use the COAR vocabulary for terms denoting the version in the lifecycle of a scholarly work.

srap:embargoDateRange

If a resource has been placed under an embargo, during which its content is not available to the general public, the srap:embargoDateRange property SHOULD be used to indicate the date range under which the embargo is in place. The date range MUST be expressed using the Extended Date/Time Format (EDTF); more specifically, as an EDTF Level 1 Extended Interval, which permits open-ended intervals. In RDF data, the data type edtf:EDTF SHOULD be used to indicate that the value conforms to EDTF.

Embargo example

This example represents the embargo period for an article that is under embargo from an unspecified start date until December 31st, 2024:

ex:article srap:embargoDateRange "../2024-12-31"^^edtf:EDTF .

Identifiers

These properties SHOULD be used to express standard identifiers of a scholarly work:

dct:identifier, bibo:isbn, srap:url

dct:identifier

dct:identifier is a non-specific property for identifiers and MAY be used in the SRAPResource shape. It is also available in the Person shape, the Organization shape and the Grant shape. Full IRIs SHOULD be used as values of dct:identifier for those identifiers that have them, such as the DOI and the ORCID.

bibo:isbn

When the focus resource is a monograph that has been assigned an ISBN, the bibo:isbn property SHOULD be used for that identifier.

srap:url

This property SHOULD be used to provide the online download location for the resource.

Enumeration

The scholarly work shape includes properties that define and locate the work in the context of monograph or periodical in which the focus work is contained. These are:

bibo:volume, bibo:issue, bibo:pageStart, bibo:pageEnd

These properties SHOULD be used to locate the scholarly work within a containing publication, which is described in a Periodical shape or a Book shape. They are assumed to be literals.

bibo:volume

If available, the designated volume in which the scholarly work is published. This SHOULD be used for scholarly works that have been published in a journal.

bibo:issue

The periodical issue in which the scholarly work was published.

bibo:pageStart

The page number where the scholarly work begins in the periodical or book in which it is published.

bibo:pageEnd

The page number where the scholarly work end in the periodical or book in which it is published.

Rights

Many types of rights apply to scholarly resources. These SHOULD be represented using the following properties:

dct:accessRights, dct:license, dct:rights, dct:rightsHolder

All these properties can be given either a literal value or an IRI identifying a document, for example a Rights Statement or a Creative Commons license document.

dct:accessRights

The dct:accessRights property MAY be used to provide a statement about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status (for example public or private).

dct:license

The dct:license property MAY be used to provide a statement about the license under which the resource is available.

dct:rights

dct:rights is the super property to the two above, meaning that it is more general and MAY be used when a more specific rights type is not available.

dct:rightsHolder

The dct:rightsHolder property MAY be used to indicate a person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Its value can be either a literal value or an IRI or Bnode describing the rights holder using a Person or Organization shape.

Accessibility

Accessibility is an important aspect of scholarly resources. The accessibility features, hazards, and deficiencies of a resource SHOULD be indicated using the property:

srap:accessibilityStatement

srap:accessibilityStatement

This property approximately corresponds to the MARC field 532 Accessibility Note but is more free form. For information on how to express more detailed accessibility information, see the section Extending SRAP.

Project and funding

srap:project, srap:funding, srap:scholarlyUnit

srap:project

The srap:project property MAY be used to indicate the project(s) in which the resource was created. Its value should be an IRI identifying the project, for example a Research Activity Identifier (RAiD). The specifics of how to describe projects is outside the scope of SRAP.

srap:funding

The srap:funding property MAY be used to indicate the funding source(s) that supported the creation of the resource. Its value SHOULD be a Grant shape (see Grant shape).

srap:scholarlyUnit

The value of the srap:scholarlyUnit property SHOULD be an Organization shape. The property is distinct from organizations with which an individual person has an affiliation or the role of an academic institution in awarding a qualification.

Person shape

rdf:type, srap:role, srap:affiliation, srap:name, dct:identifier

In scholarly publications there can be many named creators and contributors. Although the names themselves are useful for display and identification, they are not unambigous. For this reason, metadata often make use of identifiers, such as the ORCID for individual persons. Another common identifying element is the affiliation of the person at the time the work was accepted. If relevant, the specific role played by the Person can be coded. (See Appendix 1)

rdf:type

rdf:type SHOULD be included with the value srap:Person.

srap:role

srap:role SHOULD indicate the role that the person played in relation to the scholarly work. Preferably the role should be a URI taken from the Library of Congress relators list, but it may also be a simple string.

srap:affiliation

Primarily for authors and co-authors, this is the affiliation of the person at the time the work was accepted or published.

srap:name

The name of the person; usually a form intended for display.

dct:identifier

A unique identifier for the person. Some examples of common identifiers are ORCIDs, VIAF URIs, and Wikidata identifiers.

Organization shape

rdf:type, srap:role, dct:identifier, srap:name

Information about organizations MAY be included in SRAP metadata in various contexts: for the publisher of the book or periodical, for the rights holder, for the creator, and others. In each case the organization shape MAY be used as the value of those properties.

rdf:type

When used in RDF data the organization shape SHOULD have an rdf:type property with the designation as a class “Organization”.

srap:role

srap:role SHOULD indicate the role that the organization played in relation to the scholarly work. Preferably the role should be a URI taken from the Library of Congress relators list, but it may also be a simple string.

srap:name

The name of the organization; usually a form intended for display.

dct:identifier

A unique identifier for the organization. Some examples of common identifiers are VIAF URIs, and Wikidata identifiers.

Grant shape

A grant represents a financial or otherwise quantifiable allocation of resources, for example when a funding agency provides financial support for a research activity that then results in the publication of one or more scholarly articles. A grant SHOULD be described using the following properties:

rdf:type, srap:funder, dct:identifier

In RDF data, information that a resource is a grant SHOULD be designated using a rdf:type statement with the class srap:Grant as the value.

The funder of the grant (for example the funding agency) SHOULD be indicated using the property srap:funder, which may also be repeated. The value can be either a literal value (the name of the funder) or a resource that represents an Organization. It can be an IRI from a registry such as ISNI or Research Organization Registry (ROR).

The grant number or other identifier or the grant SHOULD be indicated using the property dct:identifier. The value is a literal value, for example a plain number.

Example grant shape

This example represents a grant awarded by the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. The funder is indicated using both a literal value and an IRI from ROR.

ex:lll_grant
   a srap:Grant ;
	  srap:funder "Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory" ;
	  srap:funder <https://ror.org/041nk4h53> ;
	  dct:identifier "EP/P010288/1" .

Periodical shape

The periodical shape represents a container of which the focus resource (usually a published journal article) is part. The periodical shape describes only the periodical publication itself; the specific information on on the volume and issue number of the scholarly work are provided scholarly work shape. Periodicals SHOULD be described using these properties:

rdf:type, dct:title, dct:publisher, bibo:issn, bibo:eissn

rdf:type

In RDF data, information that a resource is a periodical work SHOULD be included in the periodical shape using a rdf:type statement with the class bibo:Journal (for journals) or bibo:Periodical (for other types of periodicals than journals) as the value.

dct:title

The title of the periodical.

dct:publisher

The publisher of the periodical.

bibo:issn, bibo:eissn

For identification of the periodical, the properties bibo:eissn (for electronic International Standard Serial Numbers, i.e., e-ISSN) and bibo:issn (for other types of ISSNs) SHOULD be used.

Example periodical

This example represents the Current Problems in Cardiology journal:

ex:curr_probl_cardiol
    a bibo:Journal ;
    dct:title "Current problems in cardiology" ;
    bibo:issn "0146-2806" ;
    bibo:eissn "1535-6280" .

Book shape

The book shape can describe books and other monographic resources that contain the scholarly work. This shape is only used when the work described in the Scholarly Resource shape is a unit, such as a chapter, of a book. Scholarly resources that are themselves monographs are described in the Scholarly Resource Shape. Books that are containers for scholarly works SHOULD be described using these properties:

rdf:type, dct:contributor, dct:publisher, dct:date, bibo:isbn

rdf:type

In RDF data, information that the shape represents a monographic work SHOULD be designated using a rdf:type statement with the class bibo:Book as the value.

bibo:isbn

The bibo:isbn property SHOULD be used to represent the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) of a book.

dct:publisher

The publisher of the book or monograph.

dct:date

The publication date of the book or monograph.

Extending SRAP

SRAP is designed to be open and extensible. It is possible to use properties other than those recommended in SRAP, including properties from other namespaces such as Schema.org.

For describing the accessibility of a scholarly resource in a structured form, you can use the Schema.org Accessibility Properties for Discoverability Vocabulary.

Examples of SRAP usage

These examples illustrate full documents described using SRAP properties.

Appendix 1. Roles

Examples of roles for theses and dissertations

It is recommended that LC Relator entities be used for the role properties.

These are linked here to the Library of Congress relator properties:

Examples of roles for journal articles

Appendix 2. Legacy representations for SRAP data

SRAP itself is defined using DCTAP tables, which express the SRAP data model. The tables define several shapes, corresponding to different types of entities, as well as their properties (data elements such as title and publication date). The underlying assumption is that the metadata for each entity can be represented in a structured format such as RDF, JSON or XML and the different entities can be represented independently of each other. This is not always possible when dealing with legacy systems that only provide a flat representation of document metadata fields and values. This appendix provides guidance on how to apply SRAP in such a legacy setting.

Flat key-value representation of SRAP

Legacy systems should use properties defined in the SRAP, but in many cases will not be able to make use of the additional information that is provided by the shapes. An example:

rdf:type bibo:AcademicArticle ;
dct:title "COVID-19 and multiorgan response" ;
dct:creator "Sevim Zaim" ;
dct:creator "Jun Heng Chong" ;
dct:creator "Vissagan Sankaranarayanan" ;
dct:creator "Amer Harky" ;
dct:issued "2020" ;
dct:identifier <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2020.100618> ;
bibo:volume "45" ;
bibo:issue "8" ;
bibo:pageStart "100618" ;
dct:isPartOf "Current problems in cardiology" .

This example is less expressive than the capabiities when using a non-flat metadata model. In particular, the flat model cannot provide identifiers or roles for the creators; it cannot include the affiliation of the authors; it cannot specify whether the containing resource (the value of dct:isPartOf) is a journal or a monograph.

  1. http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/repositories/digirep/index/Scholarly_Works_Application_Profile ↩

  2. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/50/allinson-et-al/ ↩

  3. https://www.kiwi.fi/display/Julkaisuarkistopalvelut/Metadatasuositus+julkaisuarkistojen+tekstiaineistolle ↩

  4. https://rioxx.net/profiles/ ↩

  5. https://github.com/dcmi/pids_in_dc ↩