dublincore: Add or get Dublin Core metadata

In dataset: Create Data Frames that are Easier to Exchange and Reuse

Add or get Dublin Core metadata

Description

Add metadata conforming the DCMI Metadata Terms. to datasets, i.e. structured R data.frame or list objects, for an accurate and consistent identification of a resource for citation and retrieval purposes.

Usage

as_dublincore(x, type = "bibentry", ...)

dublincore(
  title,
  creator,
  contributor = NULL,
  publisher = NULL,
  identifier = NULL,
  subject = NULL,
  type = "DCMITYPE:Dataset",
  dataset_date = NULL,
  language = NULL,
  relation = NULL,
  format = "application/r-rds",
  rights = NULL,
  datasource = NULL,
  description = NULL,
  coverage = NULL
)

is.dublincore(x)

## S3 method for class 'dublincore'
is.dublincore(x)

Arguments

x	An object that is tested if it has a class "dublincore".
type	The nature or genre of the resource. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as the DCMI Type Vocabulary DCMITYPE. For a dataset, the correct term is Dataset. To describe the file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource, use the Format element.
...	Optional parameters to add to a dublincore object. author=person("Jane", "Doe") adds an author to the citation object if type="dataset".
title	dct:title, a name given to the resource. datacite allows the use of alternate titles, too. See dataset_title.
creator	An entity primarily responsible for making the resource. dct:creator Corresponds to Creator in datacite. See creator.
contributor	An entity responsible for making contributions to the dataset. See DCMI: Contributor, and for possible contribution type, please review MARC Code List for Relators.
publisher	Corresponds to dct:publisher and Publisher in DataCite. The name of the entity that holds, archives, publishes prints, distributes, releases, issues, or produces the resource. This property will be used to formulate the citation, so consider the prominence of the role. For software, use Publisher for the code repository. If there is an entity other than a code repository, that "holds, archives, publishes, prints, distributes, releases, issues, or produces" the code, use the property Contributor/contributorType/hostingInstitution for the code repository. See publisher.
identifier	An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context. Recommended practice is to identify the resource by means of a string conforming to an identification system. Examples include International Standard Book Number (ISBN), Digital Object Identifier (DOI), and Uniform Resource Name (URN). Select and identifier scheme from registered URI schemes maintained by IANA. More details: Guidelines for using resource identifiers in Dublin Core metadata and IEEE LOM. Similar to Identifier in datacite. See identifier.
subject	Defaults to NULL. See subject to add subject descriptions to your dataset.
dataset_date	Corresponds to a point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource. dct:date. Date is also recommended for discovery in datacite, but it requires a different formatting. To avoid confusion with date-related functions, instead of the DCMITERMS date or the DataCite Date term, the parameter name is dataset_date.
language	A language of the dataset. See DCMI: Language.
relation	A related resource. Recommended best practice is to identify the related resource by means of a string conforming to a formal identification system. See: dct:relation. Similar to RelatedItem in datacite, which is recommended for discovery.
format	The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the dataset. See DCMI: Format.
rights	Corresponds to dct:rights and datacite Rights. Information about rights held in and over the resource. Typically, rights information includes a statement about various property rights associated with the resource, including intellectual property rights. See rights.
datasource	The source of the dataset, DCMI: Source, which corresponds to a relatedItem in the DataCite vocabulary. We use datasource instead of source to avoid naming conflicts with the
description	An account of the resource. It may include but is not limited to: an abstract, a table of contents, a graphical representation, or a free-text account of the resource. dct:description. In datacite it is recommended for discovery. See description.
coverage	The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, spatial applicability of the dataset, or jurisdiction under which the dataset is relevant. See DCMI: Coverage.

Details

The Dublin Core, also known as the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES), is a set of fifteen main metadata items for describing digital or physical resources, such as datasets or their printed versions. Dublin Core has been formally standardized internationally as ISO 15836, as IETF RFC 5013 by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), as well as in the U.S. as ANSI/NISO Z39.85.

To provide compatibility with bibentry we try to add dataset_date parameter first as publication_date metadata field, and as a year field, too. This element can be get or set with publication_year.

The ResourceType property will be by definition "Dataset". The Size attribute (e.g. bytes, pages, inches, etc.) will automatically added to the dataset.

Value

dublincore() creates a utils::bibentry object extended with standard Dublin Core bibliographical metadata, as_dublincore() retrieves the contents of this bibentry object of a dataset_df from its attributes, and returns the contents as list, dataset_df, or bibentry object, or an ntriples string.

A logical value, if the bibliographic entries are listed according to the Dublin Core specification.

Source

DCMI Metadata Terms.

See Also

Other bibentry functions: as_datacite(), get_bibentry()

Examples

orange_bibentry <- dublincore(
  title = "Growth of Orange Trees",
  creator = c(
    person(
      given = "N.R.",
      family = "Draper",
      role = "cre",
      comment = c(VIAF = "http://viaf.org/viaf/84585260")
    ),
    person(
      given = "H",
      family = "Smith",
      role = "cre"
    )
  ),
  contributor = person(
    given = "Antal",
    family = "Daniel",
    role = "dtm"
  ), #' Add data manager
  publisher = "Wiley",
  datasource = "https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/9780471170822",
  dataset_date = 1998,
  identifier = "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14917851",
  language = "en",
  description = "The Orange data frame has 35 rows and 3 columns\n
                 of records of the growth of orange trees."
)

# To review the existing dataset_bibentry of a dataset_df object:
as_dublincore(orange_df, type = "list")

dataset documentation built on June 8, 2025, 10:15 a.m.