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Describing a Repository

Basic Fields
Identifier
Funding Source
Services
Data Collections
Advanced Publishing Techniques
- How to use external vocabularies

Describing a Repository

In schema.org, we model a repository as both an schema:ResearchProject, a sub-class of an Organization, and a schema:Service. This double-typing gives us the most flexibility in describing the characteristics of the organization providing the service and the services offered by the organization.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": ["Service", "ResearchProject"],
  "legalName": "Sample Data Repository Office",
  "name": "SDRO"
  
}

The other fields you can use to describe the Organziation and the Service are:

schema:legalName should be the official name of the repository,
schema:name can be an acronym or the name typcially used for the repository,
schema:url should be the url of your repository's homepage,
schema:description should be text describing your repository,
schema:sameAs can be used to link the repository to other URLs such as Re3Data, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.,
schema:category can be used to describe the discipline, domain, area of study that encompasses the repository's holdings.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": ["Service", "ResearchProject"],
  "legalName": "Sample Data Repository Office",
  "name": "SDRO",
  "url": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org",
  "description": "The Sample Data Repository Service provides access to data from an imaginary domain accessible from this website.",
  "sameAs": [
        "http://www.re3data.org/repository/r3d1000000xx",
        "https://twitter.com/SDRO",
        "https://www.linkedin.com/company/123456789/"
    ],
  "category": [
    "Biological Oceanography",
    "Chemical Oceanography"
  ]
}

(See advanced publishing techniques for how to describe categories/disciplines in more detail than just simple text.)

If you are using the "@id" attribute for your Repository, and the provider of the repository's services is the same Organziation, you can specify the schema:provider of the schema:Service in this way:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": ["Service", "ResearchProject"],
  "@id": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org",
  "legalName": "Sample Data Repository Office",
  "name": "SDRO",
  "url": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org",
  "description": "The Sample Data Repository Service provides access to data from an imaginary domain accessible from this website.",
  "category": [
    "Biological Oceanography",
    "Chemical Oceanography"
  ],
  "provider": {
    "@id": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org"
  }
}

However, if your repository has a situation where multiple organizations act as the provider or you want to recognize a different organization as the provider of the repository's service, schema:provider can be used in this way:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": ["Service", "ResearchProject"],
  "legalName": "Sample Data Repository Office",
  "name": "SDRO",
  "url": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org",
  "description": "The Sample Data Repository Service provides access to data from an imaginary domain accessible from this website.",
  "category": [
    "Biological Oceanography",
    "Chemical Oceanography"
  ],
  "provider": [
    {
      "@type": "ResearchProject",
      "name": "SDRO Technical Office",
      "description": "We provide all the infrastructure for the SDRO"
      ...
    },
    {
      "@type": "ResearchProject",
      "name": "SDRO Science Support Office",
      "description": "We provide all the science support functionality for the SDRO"
      ...
    }
  ]
}

Adding additional fields of schema:ResearchProject:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": ["Service", "ResearchProject"],
  "legalName": "Sample Data Repository Office",
  "name": "SDRO",
  "url": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org",
  "description": "The Sample Data Repository Service provides access to data from an imaginary domain accessible from this website.",
  "category": [
    "Biological Oceanography",
    "Chemical Oceanography"
  ],
  "provider": {
    "@id": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org"
  }
  "logo": {
    "@type": "ImageObject",
    "url": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org/images/logo.jpg"
  },
  "contactPoint": {
    "@type": "ContactPoint",
    "name": "Support",
    "email": "info@bco-dmo.org",
    "url": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org/about-us",
    "contactType": "customer support"
  },
  "foundingDate": "2006-09-01",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "123 Main St.",
    "addressLocality": "Anytown",
    "addressRegion": "ST",
    "postalCode": "12345",
    "addressCountry": "USA"
  }
}

If this ResearchProject, or Organization, has a parent entity such as a college, university or research center, that information can be provided using the schema:parentOrganization property:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": ["Service", "ResearchProject"],
  "legalName": "Sample Data Repository Office",
  "name": "SDRO",
  "url": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org",
  "description": "The Sample Data Repository Service provides access to data from an imaginary domain accessible from this website.",
  "category": [
    "Biological Oceanography",
    "Chemical Oceanography"
  ],
  "provider": {
    "@id": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org"
  },
   "parentOrganization": {
     "@type": "Organization",
     "@id": "http://www.someinstitute.edu",
     "legalName": "Some Institute",
     "name": "SI",
     "url": "http://www.someinstitute.edu",
     "address": {
       "@type": "PostalAddress",
       "streetAddress": "234 Main St.",
       "addressLocality": "Anytown",
       "addressRegion": "ST",
       "postalCode": "12345",
       "addressCountry": "USA"
     }
   }
  }
}

Describing a Repository's Identifier

Some organizations may have a persistent identifier (DOI) assigned to their organization from authorities like the Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data.org). The way to describe these organizational identifiers is to use the schema:identifier property in this way:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": ["Service", "ResearchProject"],
  "legalName": "Sample Data Repository Office",
  "name": "SDRO",
  "url": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org",
  "description": "The Sample Data Repository Service provides access to data from an imaginary domain accessible from this website.",
  "category": [
    "Biological Oceanography",
    "Chemical Oceanography"
  ],
  "provider": {
    "@id": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org"
  },
  "identifier": {
    "@type": "PropertyValue",
    "name": "Re3data DOI: 10.17616/R37P4C",
    "propertyID": "https://registry.identifiers.org/registry/doi",
    "value": "doi:10.17616/R37P4C",
    "url": "https://doi.org/10.17616/R37P4C"
  }
}

For more information on describing identifiers, see the Dataset - Identifier guide.

Describing a Repository's Funding Source

To describe the funding source of a repository, you use the schema:funder property of schema:Organization:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": ["Service", "ResearchProject"],
  "legalName": "Sample Data Repository Office",
  "name": "SDRO",
  "url": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org",
  "description": "The Sample Data Repository Service provides access to data from an imaginary domain accessible from this website.",
  "category": [
    "Biological Oceanography",
    "Chemical Oceanography"
  ],
  "provider": {
    "@id": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org"
  },
   "parentOrganization": {
     "@type": "Organization",
     "@id": "http://www.someinstitute.edu",
     "legalName": "Some Institute",
     "name": "SI",
     "url": "http://www.someinstitute.edu",
     "address": {
       "@type": "PostalAddress",
       "streetAddress": "234 Main St.",
       "addressLocality": "Anytown",
       "addressRegion": "ST",
       "postalCode": "12345",
       "addressCountry": "USA"
     },
     "funder": {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "@id": "https://doi.org/10.13039/100000141",
      "legalName": "Division of Ocean Sciences",
      "alternateName": "OCE",
      "url": "https://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=OCE",
      "identifier": {
        "@type": "PropertyValue",
        "propertyID": "https://registry.identifiers.org/registry/doi",
        "value": "doi:10.13039/100000141",
        "url": "https://doi.org/10.13039/100000141"
      },
      "parentOrganization": {
        "@type": "Organization",
        "@id": "http://doi.org/10.13039/100000085",
        "legalName": "Directorate for Geosciences",
        "alternateName": "NSF-GEO",
        "url": "http://www.nsf.gov",
        "identifier": {
          "@type": "PropertyValue",
          "propertyID": "https://registry.identifiers.org/registry/doi",
          "value": "doi:10.13039/100000085",
          "url": "https://doi.org/10.13039/100000085"
         },
        "parentOrganization": {
          "@type": "Organization",
          "@id": "http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001",
          "legalName": "National Science Foundation",
          "alternateName": "NSF",
          "url": "http://www.nsf.gov",
          "identifier": {
            "@type": "PropertyValue",
            "propertyID": "https://registry.identifiers.org/registry/doi",
            "value": "doi:10.13039/100000001",
            "url": "https://doi.org/10.13039/100000001"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Describing a Repository's Services

For repositories might offer services for accessing data as opposed to directly accessing data files. The schema:Service allows us to describe these services as well as repository searches, data submission services, and syndication services. In this first example, we describe a search service at the repository using schema:ServiceChannel.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": ["Service", "ResearchProject"],
  "legalName": "Sample Data Repository Office",
  "name": "SDRO",
  "url": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org",
  ...
  "availableChannel": [
    {
      "@type": "ServiceChannel",
      "serviceUrl": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org/search",
      "providesService": {
        "@type": "Service",
        "name": "SDRO Website Search",
        "description": "Search for webpages, datasets, authors, funding awards, instrumentation and measurements",
        "potentialAction": {
          "@type": "SearchAction",
          "target": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org/search?keywords={query_string}",
          "query-input": {
            "@type": "PropertyValueSpecification",
            "valueRequired": true,
            "valueName": "query_string"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

By specifying the schema:potentialAction, we create a machine-actionable way to execute searches.

Describing a Repository's Data Collections

If your repository has a concept of a data collection, some grouping of a number of datasets, we can use the schema:DataCatalog to describe these collections using the schema:OfferCatalog. One exampel of a DataCatalog might be to group datasets by a categorization such as 'biological data' or 'chemical data'. Or a catalog could be grouped by instrument, parameter or whatever logical grouping a repository may have.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": ["Service", "ResearchProject"],
  "legalName": "Sample Data Repository Office",
  "name": "SDRO",
  "url": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org",
  ...
  "hasOfferCatalog": {
    "@type": "OfferCatalog",
    "name": "Sample Data Repository Resource Catalog",
    "itemListElement": [
      {
       "@type": "DataCatalog",
        "@id": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org/collection/biological-data",
        "name": "Biological Data",
        "audience": {
          "@type": "Audience",
          "audienceType": "public",
          "name": "General Public"
        }
      },
      {
        "@type": "DataCatalog",
        "@id": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org/collection/geological-data",
        "name": "Geological Data",
        "audience": {
          "@type": "Audience",
          "audienceType": "public",
          "name": "General Public"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Advanced Publishing Techniques

How to publish resources for the categories/disciplines at repository services.

& How to use external vocabularies

The SWEET ontology defines a number of science disciplines and a repository could reference those, or another vocabuary's resources, by adding the vocabular to the @context attribute of the JSON-LD markup.

{
  "@context": [
    "https://schema.org/",
    {
      "sweet-rel": "http://sweetontology.net/rela/",
      "sweet-kd": "http://sweetontology.net/humanKnowledgeDomain/"
    }
  ],
  "@type": ["Service", "ResearchProject"],
  "legalName": "Sample Data Repository Office",
  "name": "SDRO",
  "url": "https://www.sample-data-repository.org",
  "description": "The Sample Data Repository Service provides access to data from an imaginary domain accessible from this website.",
  "sweet-rel:hasRealm": [
    { "@id": "sweet-kd:Biogeochemistry" },
    { "@id": "sweet-kd:Oceanography" }
  ]
  
}

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Describing a Repository

Describing a Repository

Describing a Repository's Identifier

Describing a Repository's Funding Source

Describing a Repository's Services

Describing a Repository's Data Collections

Advanced Publishing Techniques

How to publish resources for the categories/disciplines at repository services.

& How to use external vocabularies

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Describing a Repository

Describing a Repository

Describing a Repository's Identifier

Describing a Repository's Funding Source

Describing a Repository's Services

Describing a Repository's Data Collections

Advanced Publishing Techniques

How to publish resources for the categories/disciplines at repository services.

& How to use external vocabularies