RIF-CS 1.2 Changes (2010)

^{6 August 2010} 

In November 2010, minor enhancements will be made to RIF-CS Schema v1.0.1.

The updated RIF-CS v1.2.0

• expands the amount of information that can be recorded about a related information resource such as a publication;
• introduces a new element for describing how a dataset should be cited;
• moves the description of spatial and temporal coverage of collections to a new coverage element; and
• simplifies the recording of contact telephone and fax numbers.

The changes are a response to the experiences of early contributors to the Australian Research Data Commons during 2009, and have been designed to minimise the workload impact on data providers. An extended changeover period (until June 2011) will apply for harvested metadata.

What are the changes?

Element and attribute changes 

• A new separate element for describing spatial and temporal coverage. Previously this information was included in the location element. Temporal coverage will be able to be represented as text, or in W3C or UTC format.
  
  • Implications for data providers: No changes need to be made for spatial locations. For spatial coverage and temporal coverage, existing content will need to be provided in the new coverage element from June 2011.
• An expansion of the optional relatedInfo element to include a type, a title and a note rather than simply a link to a related publication. 
  • Implications for data providers: The new attributes of type, title and note are optional. However, existing content will need to be provided in the new <identifier> element within the <relatedInfo> element from June 2011.
• A new optional citationInfo element to allow provision of metadata for use in citation generation. This citation will be usable by citation software such as Endnote and Zotero from November, and will be exportable in a later release. This element will enable the citation of datasets independently of any associated publications. Citation of datasets is expected to promote recognition of their value as research outputs as well as greater re-use.
  • Implications for data providers: Inclusion of this new element for datasets is optional. However, its inclusion will support the expansion of the inter-connected mesh of research information.

Vocabulary changes

• The format for describing telephone and fax numbers will be simplified. The prefix 'tel:' will no longer be required, and  'voice' and 'fax' will be moved from the Electronic Address Type vocabulary to the Address Part Type vocabulary.
  • Implications for data providers: Existing content will need to be provided in the new format from June 2011.

Transitional arrangements

Harvested records

From November 2010 until June 2011, ANDS will accept harvests of records using either schema version. After June 2011 only RIF-CS v1.2.0 will be accepted.

During the transitional period, incoming harvests will be transformed as they enter the ANDS Collections Registry, so that information displays correctly in Research Data Australia.

Manually entered records

Manual data entry from April 2011 will support only RIF-CS v1.2.0. ANDS will migrate production records entered through the Register My Data and Publish My Data online interfaces to the new schema version.

Sandbox environment

The Sandbox environment mirrors the Production environment, and therefore will also support only RIF-CS v1.2.0 from April 2011 for data entry, although they will continue to support harvesting of RIF-CS v1.0.1 records until June 2011. After June 2011, RIF-CS v1.0.1 records will no longer be accepted in any environment.

Future changes to RIF-CS

ANDS has established a RIF-CS Advisory Board that will help to determine future schema changes. More information

Contacts

In the first instance, please ask your ANDS contact for assistance.
To find out more about the transformations that will be applied to manually entered records, please email services@ardc.edu.au.