Dublin Core Application Profiles Research Articles

Metadata creation practices at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources library’s institutional repository

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate metadata creation practices in a functional academic institution repository in Malawi, with a specific focus on the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) library.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a qualitative approach with a case study design. The study adopted a case study strategy that focuses on the in-depth, holistic and in-context examination of one or more cases. The researcher used non-probability purposive sampling to include all three LUANAR Digital Repository (LDR) staff at LUANAR library because they were thought to be knowledgeable about the LDR metadata work. The three library staff members directly involved in repository metadata were investigated for the study. Data collection techniques used in a case study approach included semi-structuring face-to-face interviews and documentary analysis. Data from interviews and documentary reviews were manually analyzed and presented in thematic categories based on the study’s objectives.FindingsQualified Dublin Core (DC) was chosen by all participants as the only metadata structure scheme that they will use to create and implement metadata in the repository. DC application profile was the only scheme used to enforce uniform naming and capitalization conventions in the application of Qualified DC element definitions. The scheme, however, was discovered to be the Qualified DC default format in the DSpace system. All participants indicated that the Agricultural Organization of the United Nations Vocabulary is used. Participants highlighted that institutional repository system compatibility, the subject matter of the resources, resource types and staff expertise influenced the selection criteria for the metadata schemes. The repository policy had been developed but had yet to be adopted by the LUANAR management.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study was limited to LUANAR library. A wider study across public and private universities in Malawi is needed to ascertain the role of metadata policy, technical knowledge and metadata specialist institutional repositories.Practical implicationsMetadata policy is to aid in the understanding of the data, ensuring that appropriate security measures are used to protect the data and for metadata harvesting purposes.Social implicationsAcademic libraries should lobby for management support towards metadata policy for institutional repositories.Originality/valueVery little is known about challenges affecting the growth of institutional repositories and standards adopted, including metadata harvesting. This paper bridges the gap in metadata standards for institutional repositories in developing countries.

Class Focused Approach to Research Outputs and Policy Literature Metadata

Successful research object sharing requires that systems and users understand the structure, semantics and rules that govern a given research object collection.
 A number of metadata standards define ontologies and vocabularies for consistent expression of research object semantics. Supporting, clarifying and sometimes extending these standards are metadata application profiles (MAPs). MAPs play a key role defining metadata element cardinality and data types. MAPs may also mandate or recommend controlled vocabularies, where metadata standards have not already mentioned these in formal range declarations, encoding schemes and semantics that are to be consumed by external systems. MAPs also guide design options for in-house systems and workflows. In this paper, development of a draft MAP for grey-literature policy and research collections is discussed. A focus of the discussion is the considerations around selection and adoption of metadata standards given the research data and literature communities in the APO stakeholder map.
 This paper presents a work-in-progress version of a Dublin Core Application Profile (DCAP) candidate. The Analysis & Policy Observatory Metadata Application Profile (APO-MAP) takes research object class structure as a starting point and considers class model options, especially given the availability of registry services and Persistent Indenter (PID) systems. The discussion finds that MAP development progresses towards a best fit that balances the need to adopt widely supported standards, local business drivers, and community acceptance.

Ranking Dublin Core descriptor lists from user interactions: a case study with Dublin Core Terms using the Dendro platform

Dublin Core descriptors capture metadata in most repositories, and this includes recent repositories dedicated to datasets. DC descriptors are generic and are being adapted to the requirements of different communities with the so-called Dublin Core Application Profiles that rely on the agreement within user communities, taking into account their evolving needs. In this paper, we propose an automated process to help curators and users discover the descriptors that best suit the needs of a specific research group in the task of describing and depositing datasets. Our approach is supported on Dendro, a prototype research data management platform, where an experimental method is used to rank and present DC Terms descriptors to the users based on their usage patterns. User interaction is recorded and used to score descriptors. In a controlled experiment, we gathered the interactions of two groups as they used Dendro to describe datasets from selected sources. One of the groups viewed descriptors according to the ranking, while the other had the same list of descriptors throughout the experiment. Preliminary results show that (1) some DC Terms are filled in more often than others, with different distribution in the two groups, (2) descriptors in higher ranks were increasingly accepted by users in detriment of manual selection, (3) users were satisfied with the performance of the platform, and (4) the quality of description was not hindered by descriptor ranking.

Provenance description of metadata application profiles for long-term maintenance of metadata schemas

PurposeProvenance information is crucial for consistent maintenance of metadata schemas over time. The purpose of this paper is to propose a provenance model named DSP-PROV to keep track of structural changes of metadata schemas.Design/methodology/approachThe DSP-PROV model is developed through applying the general provenance description standard PROV of the World Wide Web Consortium to the Dublin Core Application Profile. Metadata Application Profile of Digital Public Library of America is selected as a case study to apply the DSP-PROV model. Finally, this paper evaluates the proposed model by comparison between formal provenance description in DSP-PROV and semi-formal change log description in English.FindingsFormal provenance description in the DSP-PROV model has advantages over semi-formal provenance description in English to keep metadata schemas consistent over time.Research limitations/implicationsThe DSP-PROV model is applicable to keep track of the structural changes of metadata schema over time. Provenance description of other features of metadata schema such as vocabulary and encoding syntax are not covered.Originality/valueThis study proposes a simple model for provenance description of structural features of metadata schemas based on a few standards widely accepted on the Web and shows the advantage of the proposed model to conventional semi-formal provenance description.

Ontological modeling of educational resources: a proposed implementation for Greek schools

In eLearning context searching for suitable educational material is still a challenging issue. During the last two decades, various digital repositories, such as Learning Object Repositories, institutional repositories and latterly Open Educational Resources, have been developed to accommodate collections of learning material that can be used for instructive and research purposes. In order to make this learning material publicly available through internet searching mechanisms, it has to be enriched with metadata. Nowadays, emerging Web 3.0 applications necessitate further enhancing learning resources with semantic knowledge to facilitate conceptually searching. Adding semantic value to educational resources could be achieved by modeling ontologically the metadata profile which describes them. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the process of enhancing semantically learning resources by developing a new ontology and a prototype system to accommodate them. The designed ontology is originated from a metadata profile which is build according to the guidelines posed by Singapore Framework for Dublin Core Application Profiles. We focus on educational material for teaching courses on Informatics in primary and secondary education in Greece but the methodology and mechanism introduced could be easily adapted in any domain-specific setting.

An application profile for research collaboration and information management

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to design an application profile that will enable interoperability among research management systems, support research collaboration, and facilitate the management of research information.Design/methodology/approach– The approach is based on the Singapore Framework for Dublin Core Application Profile, a framework for designing metadata schemas for maximum interoperability. The application profile is built from gathering stakeholders’ requirements in research community and integrates four types of research information, i.e., information on researchers, research projects, research outputs, and research reports, which benefits researchers, research managers, and funding agencies.Findings– The resultant application profile is evaluated against widely used similar metadata schemas and requirements; and is found to be more comprehensive than the existing schemas and meets the collected requirements. Furthermore, the application profile is deployed with a prototype of research management system and is found works appropriately.Practical implications– The designed application profile has implications for further development of research management systems that would lead to the enhancement of research collaboration and the efficiency of research information management.Originality/value– The proposed application profile covers information entire the research development lifecycle. Both schema and information can be represented in Resource Description Framework format for reusing purpose and linking with other information. This enables users to share research information, co-operate with others, funding agencies and the community at large, thereby allowing a research management system to increase collaboration and the efficiency of research management. Furthermore, researchers and research information can be linked by means of Linked Open Data technology.

Terminology registries for knowledge organization systems: Functionality, use, and attributes

Terminology registries (TRs) are a crucial element of the infrastructure required for resource discovery services, digital libraries, Linked Data, and semantic interoperability generally. They can make the content of knowledge organization systems (KOS) available both for human and machine access. The paper describes the attributes and functionality for a TR, based on a review of published literature, existing TRs, and a survey of experts. A domain model based on user tasks is constructed and a set of core metadata elements for use in TRs is proposed. Ideally, the TR should allow searching as well as browsing for a KOS, matching a user's search while also providing information about existing terminology services, accessible to both humans and machines. The issues surrounding metadata for KOS are also discussed, together with the rationale for different aspects and the importance of a core set of KOS metadata for future machine‐based access; a possible core set of metadata elements is proposed. This is dealt with in terms of practical experience and in relation to the Dublin Core Application Profile.

Development of an Open Metadata Schema for Prospective Clinical Research (openPCR) in China

In China, deployment of electronic data capture (EDC) and clinical data management system (CDMS) for clinical research (CR) is in its very early stage, and about 90% of clinical studies collected and submitted clinical data manually. This work aims to build an open metadata schema for Prospective Clinical Research (openPCR) in China based on openEHR archetypes, in order to help Chinese researchers easily create specific data entry templates for registration, study design and clinical data collection. Singapore Framework for Dublin Core Application Profiles (DCAP) is used to develop openPCR and four steps such as defining the core functional requirements and deducing the core metadata items, developing archetype models, defining metadata terms and creating archetype records, and finally developing implementation syntax are followed. The core functional requirements are divided into three categories: requirements for research registration, requirements for trial design, and requirements for case report form (CRF). 74 metadata items are identified and their Chinese authority names are created. The minimum metadata set of openPCR includes 3 documents, 6 sections, 26 top level data groups, 32 lower data groups and 74 data elements. The top level container in openPCR is composed of public document, internal document and clinical document archetypes. A hierarchical structure of openPCR is established according to Data Structure of Electronic Health Record Architecture and Data Standard of China (Chinese EHR Standard). Metadata attributes are grouped into six parts: identification, definition, representation, relation, usage guides, and administration. OpenPCR is an open metadata schema based on research registration standards, standards of the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) and Chinese healthcare related standards, and is to be publicly available throughout China. It considers future integration of EHR and CR by adopting data structure and data terms in Chinese EHR Standard. Archetypes in openPCR are modularity models and can be separated, recombined, and reused. The authors recommend that the method to develop openPCR can be referenced by other countries when designing metadata schema of clinical research. In the next steps, openPCR should be used in a number of CR projects to test its applicability and to continuously improve its coverage. Besides, metadata schema for research protocol can be developed to structurize and standardize protocol, and syntactical interoperability of openPCR with other related standards can be considered.

Building metadata architectures: a case for e-research

This paper describes a semi-structured approach for the development of metadata architectures to facilitate the description, dissemination and reuse of interlinked resources within a federation of open access repositories. This approach, building upon the methodology and components of the Singapore Framework for Dublin Core Application Profiles, results in rich metadata architectures that bundle together functional requirements, domain model(s), a description set profile, usage guidelines and data formats. Maximum interoperability, reuse of existing mature metadata standards, long-term quality control and extensibility for addressing further community needs constitute the main benefits of such metadata architectures. The paper details the phased implementation of the proposed approach, along with a specific case study, based on a European-wide research initiative to deploy a community-focused integrated platform for the retrieval of open content, supporting explicit models of the scholarly life cycle and the practical tasks targeted by the agricultural research domain.

Requirements for vocabulary preservation and governance

Purpose – The paper seeks to analyze the health of the vocabulary ecosystem in terms of requirements, addressing its various stakeholders such as maintainers of linked open vocabularies, linked data providers who use those vocabularies in their data and memory institutions which, it is hoped, will eventually provide for the long-term preservation of vocabularies. Design/methodology/approach – This paper builds on requirements formulated more tersely in the DCMI generic namespace policy for RDF vocabularies. The examination of requirements for linked open vocabularies focuses primarily on property-and-class vocabularies in RDFS or OWL (sometimes called metadata element sets), with some consideration of SKOS concept schemes and Dublin Core application profiles. It also discusses lessons learned through two years of development of the linked open vocabularies (LOV), of which main features and key findings are described. Findings – Key findings about the current practices of vocabulary managers regarding metadata, policy and versioning are presented, as well as how such practices can be improved to ensure better discoverability and usability of RDF vocabularies. The paper presents new ways to assess the links and dependencies between vocabularies. It also stresses the necessity and importance of a global governance of the ecosystem in which vocabulary managers, standard bodies, and memory institutions should engage. Research limitations/implications – The current paper is focused on requirements related to a single type of vocabulary but could and should be extended to other types such as thesauri, classifications, and other semantic assets. Practical implications – Practical technical guidelines and social good practices are proposed for promotion in the Vocabulary Ecosystem (for example, by vocabulary managers). Originality/value – This paper brings together the research and action of several important actors in the vocabulary management and governance field, and is intended to be the basis of a roadmap for action presented at the Dublin Core conference of September 2013 in Lisbon (DC 2013).

Understanding RDA as a DC Application Profile

The applicability of Dublin Core Application Profiles (DCAP) and the Singapore Framework for DCAPs to Resource Description and Access (RDA) were assessed. First, a draft RDA application profile is outlined, which reveals their applicability to RDA as a whole. Then, the current situation and issues involved in defining and specifying the RDA vocabularies, description structures, and syntaxes, all of which form the RDA application profile, are reviewed, for four levels of the RDA description structure; that is, the levels of aggregates and components of statements forming an RDA description.

Me4DCAP V0.1: A method for the development of Dublin Core Application Profiles

Recent studies show that there is no method to develop a Dublin Core Application Profile DCAP. A DCAP is a very important construct to implement interoperability, therefore it is essential to have a method to be able to develop such a construct, in order to give DCAP developers a common ground of work. This paper presents the first version of a method to develop Dublin Core Application Profiles Me4DACP V0.1 that has been developed in a PhD project with a Design Science Research DSR approach. Me4DCAP was built having as starting point the Singapore Framework for DCAP and shows the way through the DCAP development. It encompasses a group of pre-defined interconnected activities, explicitly states when they should take place, what techniques could be used to execute them and what artifacts should result from their execution.

A Dublin core application profile for documenting analysis patterns in a reuse infrastructure

Analysis patterns are reusable computational artefacts aimed at the analysis stage of the software development process. Although analysis patterns can facilitate the work of analysts and developers, the access to them is still very poor because of the way they are usually described and made available. In order to reduce these limitations as well as to support the cataloguing and to encourage the reuse of analysis patterns, the Analysis Patterns Reuse Infrastructure (APRI) was proposed. This infrastructure comprises a repository of analysis patterns documented through a specific metadata profile that can be accessed via web services. Based on the proposal of APRI, this paper introduces a machine-processable metadata profile suited to the documentation of analysis patterns, called Dublin Core Application Profile for Analysis Patterns (DC2AP). This metadata profile is described by RDF files identified via URI, thus providing linked data that increase the potential for reusing the analysis patterns.

Developing a Dublin Core Application Profile for the knowledge organization systems (KOS) resources

AbstractEditor's SummarySince 2000, members of the Networked Knowledge Organization Systems/Services (NKOS) group have been working on specifications for metadata to describe the variety of knowledge organization systems (KOS), including classification schemes, thesauri and taxonomies. At the 2010 Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) International Conference, a task group was formed to create a Dublin Core Application Profile (DCAP) for KOS to facilitate the use of KOS in networked settings. The DCAP details metadata used for a KOS application, addressing how the KOS is to function, the items and interrelationships described, the metadata terms used and their rules for use and the machine syntax used for encoding data. Building on past work, the task group is making progress toward its numerous goals, including production of a KOS Type Vocabulary, integrating the KOS taxonomy and KOS typology into a single workable product and ultimately testing the KOS DCAP and Typology on a variety of actual knowledge organization systems.

Selected abstracts of standards under review, 2006‐2007: Notes from the ASIS&T Standards Committee (ASIS&T‐SC)

Selected abstracts of standards under review, 2006‐2007: Notes from the ASIS&T Standards Committee (ASIS&T‐SC)

Describing Scholarly Works with Dublin Core: A Functional Approach

This article describes the development of the Scholarly Works Application Profile (SWAP)—a Dublin Core application profile for describing scholarly texts. This work provides an active illustration of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) “Singapore Framework” for Application Profiles, presented at the DCMI Conference in 2007, by incorporating the various elements of Application Profile building as defined by this framework—functional requirements, domain model, description set profile, usage guidelines, and data format. These elements build on the foundations laid down by the Dublin Core Abstract Model and utilize a preexisting domain model (FR-BR—Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) in order to support the representation of complex data describing multiple entities and their relationships. The challenges of engaging community acceptance and implementation will be covered, along with other related initiatives to support the growing corpus of scholarly resource types, such as data objects, geographic data, multimedia, and images whose structure and metadata requirements introduce the need for new application profiles. Finally, looking to other initiatives, the article will comment on how Dublin Core relates to the broader scholarly information world, where projects like Object Re-use and Exchange are attempting to better equip repositories to exchange resources.

Collection-level description: Joining up the domains

This article focuses on a new tool for information retrieval-collection-level description. It allows users to search for resources across archive, library and museum domains, enabling them to identify appropriate collections for visits or item-level searching. Collection-level description originated with the Heaney entity-relationship model of collections; the metadata schemas based on the model can be used to structure searchable relational databases in which descriptions are held and a Dublin Core Application Profile is being developed. Examples are given of existing collection description databases. The final section of the article considers the relevance of collection-level description to the archives community.

Dublin Core use in libraries: a survey

An e‐mail survey was conducted by the Dublin Core Libraries Working Group to collect examples of Dublin Core use in libraries, and to provide input for the development of a Dublin Core application profile for libraries. A total of 29 responses were received from nine countries, describing 33 separate implementations of Dublin Core. The most commonly cited reasons for selecting Dublin Core were its international acceptance, flexibility and likelihood of future interoperability. Each of the 15 core elements was in use by between 59 percent and 97 percent of the projects in the survey. There was a high incidence (73 percent) of projects that use metadata elements in addition to the DC elements and approved qualifiers. The two most widely reported challenges involved in implementing Dublin Core were that there are too few elements and qualifiers, and the lack of usage guidelines.

Report from the trenches – the 8th International Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Workshop

Recounts the 8th International Dublin Core Metadata Workshop held in Ottawa, Canada, October 4‐6, 2000. It provides overviews of the working group process, and developments within the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI). NISO standardization, Dublin Core qualifiers, application profiles, administrative metadata, agent qualifiers, DC‐Education, DC‐Registries, DC‐Citation progress, and Extensible Open RDF Toolkit were main discussion topics of this workshop. This article also describes future goals of the DCMI, including additional qualifiers, multi‐lingual issues, and documentation policies.