From: Kathleen Shearer <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2015 12:06:37 -0400


COAR Launches Draft “Resource Type” Vocabulary for Open Access Repositories

Open access repositories are evolving in terms of the roles they play
and the attributes they aim to express in their records. Users want to
know about additional metadata elements used for describing repository
items, such as open access status, research funder, institutional
affiliation, and so on. Given the truly international and
collaborative nature of research, repositories must be connected and
aligned around policy and practices, and standard controlled
vocabularies are an extremely important aspect of this alignment.
Through an active, internationalEditorial Board, COAR has begun to
develop a series of controlled vocabularies for open access
repositories.

The aim of this work is to build broad international consensus around
vocabulary items for open access repositories. The Editorial Board has
reviewed existing regional and topical metadata schemas including
info:eu-repo (and OpenAIRE Guidelines), NISO Access and License
Indicators, RIOXX, CERIF Semantic Vocabulary, CASRAI Dictionary and
others. For each vocabulary element, a definition is provided, and the
item has been translated into several languages that will be connected
via linked data principles.

As a first step, the Editorial Board is making the first draft version
controlled vocabulary, resource type, available for comment by the
broader community. COAR invites you to provide feedback on the
definition and the vocabulary terms that are provided in English and
several other language (Catalan, Chinese, French, Italian, Portuguese,
Spanish, German, and Russian). All comments can be posted from the
COAR website for consideration. The period for input will be two
months from August 1 to October 1, 2015.

In the coming months the Editorial Board will be working on other
vocabularies that will also be made available to the community for
comment. This work contributes to COAR’s broader objective to develop
and maintain a set of international controlled vocabularies for open
access repositories and ensure they are adopted widely.

The Resource Type Vocabulary Draft v.1.0 (July 2015) is available to
read and for comment here.
(https://www.coar-repositories.org/activities/repository-interoperability/ig-controlled-vocabularies-for-repository-assets/deliverables/)

Support for this work has been provided by:

The COAR Controlled Vocabularies Editorial Board and COAR Interest
Group Controlled Vocabularies for Repository Assets
ART (Artificial Intelligence Research) at University of Tor Vergata
and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that
are providing the expertise and infrastructure for the creation and
maintenance of the COAR Vocabularies, particularly as Linked Open
Data.

For more information, please contact:

Jochen Schirrwagen, Controlled Vocabularies Interest Group Coordinator (email)
Imma Subirats, Controlled Vocabulary Editorial Board Coordinator (email)
Kathleen Shearer, Executive Director, COAR (email)