DataCite Metadata Properties

• Overview
  • Conventions
    • Levels of obligation
    • Naming and numbering
    • Occurrences
    • XML schema
  • Mandatory Properties
    • Table 1: DataCite Mandatory Properties
  • Recommended and Optional Properties
    • Table 2: DataCite Recommended and Optional Properties
• 1. Identifier
  • 1.a identifierType
• 2. Creator
  • 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
• 3. Title
  • 3.a titleType
• 4. Publisher
  • 4.a publisherIdentifier
  • 4.b publisherIdentifierScheme
  • 4.c schemeURI
• 5. PublicationYear
• 6. Subject
  • 6.a subjectScheme
  • 6.b schemeURI
  • 6.c valueURI
  • 6.d classificationCode
• 7. Contributor
  • 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
• 8. Date
  • 8.a dateType
  • 8.b dateInformation
• 9. Language
• 10. ResourceType
  • 10.a resourceTypeGeneral
• 11. AlternateIdentifier
  • 11.a alternateIdentifierType
• 12. RelatedIdentifier
  • 12.a relatedIdentifierType
  • 12.b relationType
  • 12.c relatedMetadataScheme
  • 12.d schemeURI
  • 12.e schemeType
  • 12.f resourceTypeGeneral
• 13. Size
• 14. Format
• 15. Version
• 16. Rights
  • 16.a rightsURI
  • 16.b rightsIdentifier
  • 16.c rightsIdentifierScheme
  • 16.d schemeURI
• 17. Description
  • 17.a descriptionType
• 18. GeoLocation
  • 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
• 19. FundingReference
  • 19.1 funderName
  • 19.2 funderIdentifier
    • 19.2.a funderIdentifierType
    • 19.2.b schemeURI
  • 19.3 awardNumber
    • 19.3.a awardURI
  • 19.4 awardTitle
• 20. RelatedItem
  • 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
  • 20.3 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

Guidance for handling missing mandatory property values

If providing values for any of the mandatory properties presents a difficulty, use of standard machine - recognizable codes is strongly advised. A set of the codes is provided in Appendix 3: Standard values for unknown information. However, we recommend that you consider the resulting effect on the citation created from the metadata provided.

Here is an example of a citation that uses machine-readable substitutions for all but one of the required metadata properties. Obviously the more metadata that is supplied, the more information is conveyed. Note that this is a demonstration DOI and not an actual identifier, so the link will not work.

:unkn 9999: :none. :null. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.5072/FK2JW8C992