Documentation

Contributors

This guide gives markup examples of contributor metadata for members registering content by direct deposit of XML. A contributor is a person or organisation that is considered the author of a work. A contributor may be a person or a group author (organization in our XML). Contributor metadata also includes affiliations, which have their own guide.

ORCID iDs

An author’s ORCID iD should be included whenever possible. Providing an ORCID iD in a metadata record allows the author’s ORCID record to be automatically updated via our auto-update process. OJS users who have upgraded to version 3.1.2 or later can request authenticated iDs from both contributing authors and co-authors - learn more about the OJS-ORCID plugin.

Contributor roles

Roles define the specific contribution a person or organisation has made to research and related research outputs. Author and editor roles are most common, but roles related to data curation, analysis, funding, software, and more also apply.

As of schema version 5.5.0 multiple contributor roles are supported. Support for the NISO CRediT vocabulary has also been added.

CRediT roles: role definitions: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18421448

Crossref roles:

If you are using schema versions 5.4.0 and earlier, a single contributor role per contributor is required, and only one role is allowed. Supported values are:

• author
• editor
• chair
• reviewer
• review-assistant
• stats-reviewer
• reviewer-external
• reader
• translator

Contributor roles as of schema version 5.5.0 may be supplied using the <role> element. A role type and vocab are required.

<person_name sequence="first">
  <given_name>Minerva</given_name>
  <surname>Nipperson</surname>
  <role type="author" vocab="crossref"/>
  <role type="corresponding-author" vocab="crossref"/>
  <ORCID authenticated="true">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4011-3590</ORCID>
</person_name>

A single contributor role may also be supplied using the contributor_role attribute on the <person_name> element. This option is currently supported for all schema but may be deprecated in the future.

<person_name sequence="first" contributor_role="author">
  <given_name>Minerva</given_name>
  <surname>Nipperson</surname>
  <ORCID authenticated="true">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4011-3590</ORCID>
</person_name>

Contributor order

The <person_name> and <organization> elements both include a required contributor sequence attribute. An author may be first or additional. Specific sequence numbering is not allowed, but many systems using our metadata assume that the order of authors as present in the metadata is the appropriate order for metadata display.

Contributor names

Our current name support includes <given_name>, <surname>, and <suffix> elements to capture different name parts. This model is currently being updated, but for now:

• <surname> is required for all person names
• If a contributor has just one name, put it under the <surname> field

The data supplied in the <given_name> and <surname> fields is used for display and query matching and the values must be as accurate as possible. Values included in <surname> will be treated as a surname, family name, or single name for matching and display purposes.

<person_name sequence="first" contributor_role="author">
  <given_name>Minerva</given_name>
  <surname>Nipperson</surname>
  <suffix>III</suffix>
  <ORCID authenticated="true">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4011-3590</ORCID>
</person_name>

Contributor example

<contributors>
  <person_name sequence="first">
    <given_name>Minerva</given_name>
    <surname>Nipperson</surname>
    <suffix>III</suffix>
    <role type="author" vocab="crossref"/>
    <role type="corresponding-author" vocab="crossref"/>
    <affiliations>
      <institution>
        <institution_id type="ror">https://ror.org/01bj3aw27</institution_id>
        <institution_department>Office of Environmental Management</institution_department>
      </institution>
    </affiliations>
    <ORCID authenticated="true">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4011-3590</ORCID>
  </person_name>
  <person_name sequence="additional" contributor_role="author">
    <given_name>Christopher </given_name>
    <surname>Personality</surname>
    <role type="data-curation" vocab="credit"/>
    <role type="formal-analysis" vocab="credit"/>
    <affiliations>
      <institution>
        <institution_id type="ror">https://ror.org/01bj3aw27</institution_id>
        <institution_department>Office of Environmental Management</institution_department>
      </institution>
    </affiliations>
  </person_name>
  <person_name sequence="additional" contributor_role="author">
    <given_name>Katharine </given_name>
    <surname>Mech</surname>
  </person_name>
</contributors>