Current Data Model

All metadata are modelled according to the model as described in the following.

There are two schemas for metadata: draft and final. Final describes the metadata as they should be in the end, draft has fewer constraints, in case the metadata is not yet complete. Any metadata of a project that is marked as Finished must use the final schema, metadata of a projects that are marked as Ongoing may use the draft schema.

The two schemas can be found here.

The following description is based on the final schema.

Top Level

A set of metadata consists of the following top-level elements:

Project
Dataset
Person
Organization
Grant

Each of these elements is an entity identified by a unique identifier. Other elements can refer to these entities by their identifier.

Any other metadata element may itself be a complex object, but it is always part of one of the top-level elements. Such elements do not have an identifier, but are identified by their position in the hierarchy.

Field	Type	Cardinality
`$schema`	string	0-1
`project`	project	1
`datasets`	dataset[]	1-n
`persons`	person[]	0-n
`organizations`	organization[]	0-n
`grants`	grant[]	0-n

Types

Entity Types

Project

Field	Type	Cardinality	Restrictions
`__type`	string	1	Literal "Project"
`shortcode`	string	1	4 char hexadecimal
`status`	string	1	Literal "Ongoing" or "Finished"
`name`	string	1
`description`	lang_string	1
`startDate`	date	1	String of format "YYYY-MM-DD"
`teaserText`	string	1
`url`	url	1
`howToCite`	string	1
`datasets`	id[]	1-n	String containing the identifier of a dataset
`keywords`	lang_string[]	1-n
`disciplines`	lang_string\|url[]	1-n
`temporalCoverage`	lang_string\|url[]	1-n
`spatialCoverage`	url[]	1-n
`funders`	id[]	1-n	String containing the identifier of a person or organization
`endDate`	date	0-1	String of format "YYYY-MM-DD"
`secondaryURL`	url	0-1
`dataManagementPlan`	dmp	0-1
`contactPoint`	id	0-1	String containing the identifier of a person or organization
`publications`	publication[]	0-n
`grants`	id[]	0-n	String containing the identifier of a grant
`alternativeNames`	lang_string[]	0-n

Dataset

Field	Type	Cardinality	Restrictions
`__id`	string	1
`__type`	string	1	Literal "Dataset"
`title`	string	1
`accessConditions`	string	1	Literal "open", "restricted" or "closed"
`howToCite`	string	1
`status`	string	1	Literal "In Planning", "Ongoing", "On hold", "Finished"
`abstract`	lang_string\|url	1-n
`typeOfData`	string[]	1-n	Literal "XML", "Text", "Image", "Video", "Audio"
`licenses`	license[]	1-n
`languages`	lang_string[]	1-n
`attributions`	attribution[]	1-n
`datePublished`	date	0-1
`dateCreated`	date	0-1
`dateModified`	date	0-1
`distribution`	url	0-1
`alternativeTitles`	lang_string[]	0-n
`urls`	url[]	0-n
`additional`	lang_string\|url	0-n

Person

Field	Type	Cardinality	Restrictions
`__id`	string	1
`__type`	string	1	Literal 'Person'
`givenNames`	string[]	1-n
`familyNames`	string[]	1-n
`jobTitles`	string[]	0-n
`affiliations`	id[]	0-n	Organization IDs
`address`	address	0-1
`email`	string	0-1
`secondaryEmail`	string	0-1
`authorityRefs`	url[]	0-n	References to external authority files

Organization

Field	Type	Cardinality	Restrictions
`__id`	string	1
`__type`	string	1	Literal 'Organization'
`name`	string	1
`url`	url	1
`address`	address	0-1
`email`	string	0-1
`alternativeName`	lang_string	0-1
`authorityRefs`	url[]	0-n	References to external authority files

Grant

Field	Type	Cardinality	Restrictions
`__id`	string	1
`__type`	string	1	Literal 'Grant'
`funders`	id[]	1-n	Person or Organization IDs
`number`	string	0-1
`name`	string	0-1
`url`	url	0-1

Value Types

String with Language Tag (`lang_string`)

Object with an ISO language code as key and a string as value.

{
    "en": "Lorem ipsum in English.",
    "de": "Lorem ipsum auf Deutsch."
}

Date

String with the format YYYY-MM-DD.

URL

An object representing a URL. Depending on the type field, the URL may be a generic URL or a more specific link, like a PID or a reference to a resource in an external authority file.

Field	Type	Cardinality	Restrictions
`__type`	string	1	Literal 'URL'
`type`	string	1	Literal 'URL', 'Geonames', 'Pleiades', 'Skos', 'Periodo', 'Chronontology', 'GND', 'VIAF', 'Grid', 'ORCID', 'Creative Commons', 'DOI', 'ARK'
`url`	string	1
`text`	string	0-1

Data Management Plan (`dmp`)

Field	Type	Cardinality	Restrictions
`__type`	string	1	Literal 'DataManagementPlan'
`available	boolean	0-1
`url`	url	0-1

Publication

Field	Type	Cardinality	Restrictions
`text`	string	1
`url`	url	0-1

Address

Field	Type	Cardinality	Restrictions
`__type`	string	1	Literal 'Address'
`street`	string	1
`postalCode`	string	1
`locality`	string	1
`country`	string	1
`canton`	string	0-1
`additional`	string	0-1

License

Field	Type	Cardinality	Restrictions
`__type`	string	1	Literal 'License'
`license`	url	1
`date`	date	1
`details`	string	0-1

Attribution

Field	Type	Cardinality	Restrictions
`__type`	string	1	Literal 'Attribution'
`agent`	string	1
`roles`	string	1-n

Entity-Relationship Diagram

erDiagram
    project ||--|{ dataset : datasets
    project ||--|| person : contactPoint
    project ||--|| organization : contactPoint
    project ||--|{ person : funders
    project ||--|{ organization : funders
    project ||--|{ grant : grants
    person ||--|{ organization : affiliations
    grant ||--|{ organization : funders
    grant ||--|{ person : funders

    project {
        string __type "1; Literal 'Project'"
        string shortcode "1"
        string status "1; Literal 'Ongoing' or 'Finished'"
        string name "1"
        lang_string description "1"
        date startDate "1"
        string teaserText "1"
        url url "1"
        string howToCite "1"
        id[] datasets "1-n; Dataset IDs"
        lang_string[] keywords "1-n"
        lang_string_or_url[] disciplines "1-n"
        lang_string_or_url[] temporalCoverage "1-n"
        url[] spatialCoverage "1-n"
        id[] funders "1-n; Person or Organization IDs"
        date endDate "0-1"
        url secondaryURL "0-1"
        dmp dataManagementPlan "0-1"
        id contactPoint "0-1"
        publication[] publications "0-n"
        id[] grants "0-n"
        lang_string[] alternativeNames "0-n"
    }

    dataset {
        string __id "1"
        string __type "1; Literal 'Dataset'"
        string title "1"
        string accessConditions "1; Literal 'open', 'restricted' or 'closed'"
        string howToCite "1"
        string status "1; Literal 'In Planning', 'Ongoing', 'On hold', 'Finished'"
        lang_string_or_url[] abstract "1-n"
        string[] typeOfData "1-n; Literal 'XML', 'Text', 'Image', 'Video', 'Audio'"
        license[] licenses "1-n"
        lang_string[] languages "1-n"
        attribution[] attributions "1-n"
        date datePublished "0-1"
        date dateCreated "0-1"
        date dateModified "0-1"
        url distribution "0-1"
        lang_string[] alternativeTitles "0-n"
        url[] urls "0-n"
        lang_string_or_url[] additional "0-n"
    }

    person {
        string __id "1"
        string __type "1; Literal 'Person'"
        string[] givenNames "1-n"
        string[] familyNames "1-n"
        string[] jobTitles "0-n"
        id[] affiliations "0-n; Organization IDs"
        address address "0-1"
        string email "0-1"
        string secondaryEmail "0-1"
        url[] authorityRefs "0-n"
    }

    organization {
        string __id "1"
        string __type "1; Literal 'Organization'"
        string name "1"
        url url "1"
        address address "0-1"
        string email "0-1"
        lang_string alternativeName "0-1"
        url[] authorityRefs "0-n"
    }

    grant {
        string __id "1"
        string __type "1; Literal 'Grant'"
        id[] funders "1-n; Person or Organization IDs"
        string number "0-1"
        string name "0-1"
        url url "0-1"
    }

Legacy docs

The legacy documentation can be found here. This includes thoughts on mappings to external aggregators and on RDF representation of the metadata.