Status: Published
Version: 1.0
This recommendation document is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0 UK
Provenance
JATS4R subgroup. Subgroup members (listed alphabetically):
David Haber, American Society for Microbiology; Melissa Harrison, eLife; Stephen Flockton, IOP Press; Kelly McDougall MIT Press (Chair); Elizabeth Seiver
Context
JATS 1.1
Elements: <contrib-group>, <contrib>, <role>
Attributes: @content-type
JATS 1.2
Elements: <contrib-group>, <contrib>, <role>
Attributes: @vocab, @vocab-identifier, @vocab-term, @vocab-term-identifier
Description
The CRediT taxonomy provides a way to encode contribution information inside article XML files. The taxonomy identifies the specific nature of an individual’s contribution with respect to the research material at hand. The purpose of CRediT is to provide transparency in contributions to scholarly published work, to enable improved systems of attribution, credit, and accountability.
As of the publication of this recommendation, there are 14 types of contributions that can be applied to an individual contributor:
Table 1: CRediT terms and URLs
Note: Multiple terms can be applied to a single contributor. For more information about the CRediT taxonomy as well as the individual terms, please see: https://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles.
Finally, it should be noted that this recommendation is specific to capturing CRediT information through the use of the <role> element. For guidance on capturing information about authors and their affiliations in article metadata, please refer to the JATS4R Authors and Affiliations recommendation. Also note that this recommendation does not address all possible uses of <role>, which will be addressed in a separate recommendation if warranted by sufficient interest. If you would be interested in participating in a subgroup dedicated to the use of <role> please email info@jats4r.org.
Objectives
Objectives of these recommendations is to promote transparency of contribution information in article XML and to ensure that contribution types are encoded in a manner that is machine readable and optimized for reuse.
Additional reading
- NISO JATS 1.1 library: http://jats.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/tag-library/1.1/
- NISO JATS 1.2d1 library: http://jats.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/tag-library/1.2d1/
- NISO JATS Standing Committee Recommended Changes Between NISO/JATS 1.1 and JATS 1.2d1:
https://groups.niso.org/apps/group_public/download.php/18337/NISO-JATS-1-1-to-1-2d1.pdf - ANSI/NISO Standard Z39.96-2015: https://www.niso.org/publications/z3996-2015-jats
- CASRAI Contributor Roles https://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles
- Samples document (Google Drive): https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1iqFTt8-04BmKuUfKVBcis_M6SQ-eE8Hz
Recommendation
It is recommended than when including CrediT information in JATS XML, the JATS 1.2 DTD be used as it provides a more robust way of supporting the taxonomy as demonstrated in the following recommendations. However, it is JATS4R’s mandate to be as inclusive as possible in order to accommodate the constraints of DTD versioning. Therefore, this recommendation defines two ways of tagging CRediT taxonomy in article XML, one using the JATS 1.1 DTD and the second using the JATS 1.2 DTD.
There may be a difference between the term inside the <role> element content, which is intended for display, and the term as it appears inside @vocab-term (JATS 1.2) or @content-type (JATS 1.1) and related attributes. In such cases JATS4R does not take a position on what is in the human readable display, as long as the taxonomy usage in the attribute(s) is correct as per the above recommendations.
Recommendation when using the JATS 1.2 DTD
Each CRediT term must be included inside the <role> element, and each <role> element must only include one term. In cases where more than one CRediT term needs to be applied, the <role> element should be repeated. The <role> element must carry the following attributes:
@vocab, must always carry the value “credit”.
@vocab-identifier, must point to the URL for the general CRediT taxonomy
@vocab-term, must identify the particular CRediT term.
@vocab-term-identifier, must point to the URL of the specific CRediT term.
See Examples 1 and 2.
Recommendation when using the JATS 1.2 DTD
Include role in <role> element.
Use @content-type attribute to point to the URL of the specific CRediT term. @content-type must point to the URL of the specific CRediT term.
See Examples 3 and 4.
Note: The <role> element may include information unrelated to CRediT, such as an individual’s position at work or job title. In such cases the decision of how to include that information should be left to individual organizations, however, care should be taken to ensure that no potential conflicts exist between the use of <role> for carrying CRediT information and its use otherwise (see Example 5).
Examples
Example 1: Value of the <role> element is identical to the value of the @vocab_term attribute:
<contrib-group> <contrib> <string-name> <given-names>Dan</given-names> <surname>Green</surname> </string-name> <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="http://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles" vocab-term="Conceptualization" vocab-term-identifier="http://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles/Conceptualization"> Conceptualization</role> </contrib> <contrib> <string-name> <surname>Valanciunas</surname> <given-names>Jonas</given-names> </string-name> <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="http://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles" vocab-term="Writing - Original Draft" vocab-term-identifier="https:/dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles/Writing_original_draft">Writing - Original Draft</role> </contrib> </contrib-group>
Example 2: Value of the <role> element different from value of the @vocab_term attribute:
<contrib-group> <contrib> <string-name> <given-names>Patrick</given-names> <surname>McCaw</surname> </string-name> <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="http://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles" vocab-term="Investigation" vocab-term-identifier="Investigation">Data Collection</role> </contrib> <contrib> <string-name> <given-names>Fred</given-names> <surname>Vanvleet</surname> </string-name> <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="http://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles" vocab-term="Investigation" vocab-term-identifier="Investigation">Data Collection</role> </contrib> </contrib-group>
Example 3: Value of the <role> element is identical to the value of the @vocab_term attribute
<contrib-group> <contrib> <string-name> <surname>Leonard</surname> <given-names>Kawhi</given-names> </string-name> <role content-type="https://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles/Conceptualization" >Conceptualization</role> <role content-type="https://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles/Data_curation">Data curation</role> <role content-type="https://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles/Formal_analysis">Formal analysis</role> <role content-type="https://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles/Investigation">Investigation</role> <role content-type="https://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles/Writing_original_draft">Writing – original draft</role> </contrib> <contrib> <contrib-id authenticated="true" contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2354-0408</contrib-id> <name> <surname>Delon</surname> <given-names>Wright</given-names> </name> <role content-type="https://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles/Data_curation">Data curation</role> <role content-type="https://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles/Writing_%E2%80%93_review_%26_editing">Writing – review & editing</role> </contrib> <contrib> <string-name> <surname>Siakam</surname> <given-names>Pascal</given-names> </string-name> <role content-type="https://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles/Data_curation">Data curation</role> </contrib> </contrib-group>
Example 4: value of the <role> element different from value of the @vocab_term attribute
<contrib-group> <contrib> <string-name> <surname>Boucher</surname> <given-names>Chris</given-names> </string-name> <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="http://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles" vocab-term="Conceptualization" vocab-term-identifier="http://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles/Conceptualization">Study Designer</role> </contrib>
Example 5: <role> element may include information unrelated to CRediT
<contrib-group> <contrib> <string-name> <given-names>Green</given-names> <surname>Dan</surname> </string-name> <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="http://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles" vocab-term="Conceptualization" vocab-term-identifier="http://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles/Conceptualization"> Conceptualization</role> <role>Section Editor</role> </contrib> </contrib-group>