[eml-dev] Question about eml personnel

Thu Nov 13 18:50:13 PST 2014

Hi Christy -
I am the data manager for one of the US-LTER sites (Santa Barbara 
Coastal LTER). there are lots of uses for the responsibleParty module 
under eml-dataset. And you're right, the major hassle is figuring out 
how various people are involved.

Our priorities for choosing how to apply the EML-fields are below:
1.we want a dataset citation to make sense. Most of the time, dataset 
citations seem to be mirroring paper citations -- although this might 
not always be appropriate. So if a citation is planned to have 'people' 
cited, those people belong at this xpath: 
dataset/creator/individualName, and in the order they should be cited.

We have some datasets that are reposted from other sources. For these, 
we respect the wishes of the originator, (eg, U.S. Geological Survey or 
NASA), and they often want the organization to be cited, so for these, 
we use dataset/creator/organization

we use the <publisher> field for the organization we want to appear in 
the citation as the publisher.

2. We record how people's involvement in a dataset might have changed 
(e.g., for a time-series that is regularly updated), we use 
dataset/associatedParty. Here, you can specify how a person was involved 
by filling out the string field <role>. Since it's a string field, it 
can vary as much as it needs to. These could be the same people as in 
the creator elements, or different ones. If they are the same people, I 
prefer to repopulate those fields rather than use internal references.

3. dataset contact: for this, we use dataset/contact/positionName (not 
an individual), and put in the  position "data manager", with a 
persistent, non-personal email (we use our site's ticket-tracking 
email). This ensures that someone will be around to answer questions 
about the dataset.

4. project: we use the project module to describe the responsible 
umbrella project. So the  boilerplate includes the people who are 
principal investigators on the funding grant. You can include more 
detailed sub-projects, but I don't know of any instances of that. We 
trust the data catalogs we post to to not use these fields in regular 
queries, but in reality, we have no control over that.  It would look 
odd in a data catalog to see the same small group appearing to be 
attached to every dataset, but I suppose that is appropriate at some 
level -- e.g., from the funder's point of view.

I hope this helps -
best,
Margaret

-----------
Margaret O'Brien
Information Management
Santa Barbara Coastal LTER
Marine Science Institute, UCSB
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
805-893-2071 (voice)
http://sbc.lternet.edu

On 11/13/2014 5:38 PM, Christy Lee. Geromboux wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I am new to the LTERN data team, and am trying to get my head around 
> EML. I was hoping to gain some understanding around where various 
> personnel ought to be acknowledged. Specifically the differentiation 
> between dataset creators, dataset owners, project personnel, and 
> funding bodies that require citation. I have tried to illustrate my 
> question with a fictitious example in blue, and where I have copied 
> the relevant EML documentation I have used purple.
>
> We have many data sets that fall under various umbrella projects 
> (which we call Plot Networks).
>
> For example there a Project:
>
> Three Parks Savanna Plot Network
>
> There are many data sets have been produced as part of this project.
>
> For example:
>
> Three Parks Savanna Plot Network: Dataset 1
>
> Three Parks Savanna Plot Network: Dataset 2
>
> We have situations where the Plot Network leader (i.e. guy who signs 
> the data deeds), is not the same person who created the data set, and 
> does not require citation. But we need to acknowledge that he is the 
> leader of the project and therefore has final say regarding all 
> datasets that belong to this project.
>
> So in the above example:
>
> Bob is the plot leader for Three Parks Savanna Fire-effects Plot Network
>
> But:
>
> John is the data set creator for the package Three Parks Savanna Plot 
> Network: Dataset 1
>
> Bob is the data set creator for the package Three Parks Savanna Plot 
> Network: Dataset 2
>
> Also:
>
> OrganisationA is a funding body for the entire Plot Network and 
> therefore requires citation for all datasets in this project.
>
> As I understand:
>
> 1.The eml-project <personnel> tag can be used for the owner of the 
> Plot Network (i.e. Bob), and we can give him/her a role of "Owner". 
> The relevant EML documentation from  is below:
>
> *2.4.5. The eml-project module - Research context information for 
> resources*
>
> The eml-project module describes the research context in which the 
> dataset was created, including descriptions of over-all motivations 
> and goals, funding, personnel, description of the study area etc. This 
> is also the module to describe the design of the project: the 
> scientific questions being asked, the architecture of the design, etc. 
> This module is used to place the dataset that is being documented into 
> its larger research context.
>
> *personnel *
>
> This element has no default value.
>
> Content of this field: Description of this field:
>
> Derived from: rp:ResponsibleParty (by xs:extension)
>
> The Personnel field extends ResponsibleParty with role information and 
> is used to document people involved in a research project by providing 
> contact information and their role in the project. A project must have 
> at least one originator.
>
> *role *
>
> The role field contains information about role a person plays in a 
> research project. There are a number of suggested roles, however, it 
> is possible to add a role if the suggested roles are not adequate.
>
> Example(s):
>
> author
>
> contentProvider
>
> custodianSteward
>
> distributor
>
> editor
>
> metadataProvider
>
> originator
>
> owner
>
> ...
>
> 2.Where as the <creator> tag in the eml-dataset module would contain 
> the people and organisations that make up the citation for the dataset 
> (either Bob or John, as well as OrganisationA). See EML documentation 
> below:
>
> **
>
> *creator *
>
> This element has no default value.
>
> Content of this field: Description of this field:
>
> Type: rp:ResponsibleParty
>
> The 'creator' element provides the full name of the person, 
> organization, or position who created the resource. The list of 
> creators for a resource represent the people and organizations who 
> should be cited for the resource.
>
> So citations would include:
>
> John and OrganisationA. Three Parks Savanna Plot Network: Dataset 1
>
> Bob and OrganisationA. Three Parks Savanna Plot Network: Dataset 2
>
> And the Project personnel for both of these datasets would list Bob 
> with a role of Owner.
>
> Have I got the correct understanding? Hopefully this all makes sense!
>
> Regards,
>
> Christy Geromboux
>
> Data Curator
>
> The Fenner School of Environment and Society ANU
>
> College of Medicine, Biology & Environment
>
> Fenner Building 141,
>
> The Australian National University ACT 0200
>
> Australia
>
> T: + 61 2 6125 5580
>
> christy.geromboux at anu.edu.au <mailto:christy.geromboux at anu.edu.au>
>
>
>
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