ckanext-attribution documentation

This extension standardises author/contributor attribution for datasets, enabling enhanced metadata and greater linkage between datasets. It currently integrates with the ORCID and ROR APIs; contributors ('agents') can be added directly from these databases, or manually.

Contributors can be added and edited via actions or via a Vue app that can be inserted into the package_metadata_fields.html template snippet.

Schema

The schema is (partially) based on the RDA/TDWG recommendations. Three new models are added: Agent (contributors), ContributionActivity, and Affiliation (plus small linking models between these and Package records).

Agent

Defines one agent.

Field	Type	Values	Notes
agent_type	string	'person', 'org', 'other'
family_name	string		only used for 'person' records
given_names	string		only used for 'person' records
given_names_first	bool	True, False	only used for 'person' records; if the given names should be displayed first according to the person's culture/language (default True)
name	string		used for non-'person' records
location	string		used for non-person records, optional; a location to display for the organisation to help differentiate between similar names (e.g. 'Natural History Museum (_

London_)' and 'Natural History Museum (Dublin)') external_id|string||an identifier from an external service like ORCID or ROR external_id_scheme|string|'orcid', 'ror', other|the scheme for the external_id; currently only 'orcid' and 'ror' are fully supported, though basic support for others can be implemented by adding to the attribution_controlled_lists action user_id|string|User.id foreign key|link to a user account on the CKAN instance

ContributionActivity

Defines one activity performed by one agent on one specific dataset.

Field	Type	Values	Notes
activity	string	[controlled vocabulary]	the activity/role the agent is associated with, e.g. 'Editor', 'Methodology'; roles are defined in the attribution_controlled_lists action, which currently lists the Datacite and CRediT role taxonomies (but can be expanded)
scheme	string	[controlled vocabulary]	name of the defined scheme from attribution_controlled_lists
level	string	'Lead', 'Equal', 'Supporting'	optional degree of contribution (from CRediT)
time	datetime		optional date/time of the activity
order	integer		order of the agent within all who are associated with the same activity, e.g. 1st Editor, 3rd DataCollector (optional)

A specialised ContributionActivity entry with a '[citation]' activity is used to define the order in which contributors should be cited (and/or if they should be cited at all).

Affiliation

Defines a relationship between two agents, either as a 'universal' (persistent) affiliation or for a single package (e.g. a project affiliation).

Field	Type	Values	Notes
agent_a_id	string	Agent.id foreign key	one of the two agents (a/b order does not matter)
agent_b_id	string	Agent.id foreign key	one of the two agents (a/b order does not matter)
affiliation_type	string		very short description (1 or 2 words) of affiliation, e.g. 'employment' (optional)
description	string		longer description of affiliation (optional)
start_date	date		date at which the relationship began, e.g. employment start date (optional)
end_date	date		date at which the relationship ended (optional)
package_id	string	Package.id foreign key	links affiliation to a specific package/dataset (optional)