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Introduction

Controlled vocabularies for metadata play a crucial role in systematically organizing and managing information, particularly in the context of datasets. A controlled vocabulary consists of predefined terms with assigned meanings, ensuring consistency when describing and categorizing information.

Organisations

For organsations ROR-id is prefered to identify the organization.

Examples:
https://ror.org/05ynxx418
https://ror.org/040wg7k59
https://ror.org/03zttf063

Persons

To identify a person use ORCID.

Examples:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9227-8514

Structure of the ORCID Identifier

Subjects & keywords

There is multiple vocabularies used to catagorize and tag resources, some of them covers several diciplines while some of them are specific to a limited set of research domains.

AAT The art & Architecture Thesaurus

https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/

Example term:
http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300191918

Example usage 
<subjects>
    <subject 
    subjectScheme="AAT The art & Architecture Thesaurus" 
    schemeURI="http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/" 
    valueURI="http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300191918"
    classificationCode="300191918" 
    xml:lang="en">Asian coins</subject>
</subjects>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "keywords": [
        {
            "@type": "DefinedTerm",
            "@id": "http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300191918",
            "inDefinedTermSet": "http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/",
            "termCode": "300191918",
            "name": "Asian coins"
        }
    ]
}

AGROVOC Vocabulary for Agricultural Sciences

https://agrovoc.fao.org/browse/agrovoc

Example term:
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_2536

Example usage 
<subjects>
    <subject 
    subjectScheme="AGROVOC Vocabulary for Agricultural Sciences" 
    schemeURI="http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc" 
    valueURI="http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_2152"
    classificationCode="c_2536" 
    xml:lang="en">elks</subject>
</subjects>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "keywords": [
        {
            "@type": "DefinedTerm",
            "@id": "http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_2536",
            "inDefinedTermSet": "https://agrovoc.fao.org/browse/agrovoc",
            "termCode": "c_2536",
            "name": "elks"
        }
    ]
}

ALLFO Allmän finländsk ontologi

https://finto.fi/yso

Example term:
http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p13693

Example usage 
<subjects>
    <subject 
    subjectScheme="ALLFO - Allmän finländsk ontologi" 
    schemeURI="https://finto.fi/yso" 
    valueURI="http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p13693"
    classificationCode="p13693" 
    xml:lang="en">elk</subject>
</subjects>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "keywords": [
        {
            "@type": "DefinedTerm",
            "@id": "http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p13693",
            "inDefinedTermSet": "https://finto.fi/yso",
            "termCode": "p13693",
            "name": "elk"
        }
    ]
}

ELSST The European Language Social Science Thesaurus

https://elsst.cessda.eu

Example term:
https://elsst.cessda.eu/id/4/a74cd285-d1c6-4e55-8c0d-faf0fe94399f

Example usage 
<subjects>
    <subject 
    subjectScheme="ELSST The European Language Social Science Thesaurus" 
    schemeURI="https://elsst.cessda.eu" 
    valueURI="https://elsst.cessda.eu/id/4/a74cd285-d1c6-4e55-8c0d-faf0fe94399f"
    classificationCode="urn:ddi:int.cessda.elsst:a74cd285-d1c6-4e55-8c0d-faf0fe94399f:4" 
    xml:lang="en">ENVIRONMENT</subject>
</subjects>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "keywords": [
        {
            "@type": "DefinedTerm",
            "@id": "https://elsst.cessda.eu/id/4/a74cd285-d1c6-4e55-8c0d-faf0fe94399f",
            "inDefinedTermSet": "https://elsst.cessda.eu",
            "termCode": "urn:ddi:int.cessda.elsst:a74cd285-d1c6-4e55-8c0d-faf0fe94399f:4",
            "name": "ENVIRONMENT"
        }
    ]
}

EnvThes Environmental Thesaurus

https://vocabs.lter-europe.net/envthes

Example term:
http://vocabs.lter-europe.net/EnvThes/20800

Example usage 
<subjects>
    <subject 
    subjectScheme="EnvThes Environmental Thesaurus" 
    schemeURI="https://vocabs.lter-europe.net/envthes" 
    valueURI="http://vocabs.lter-europe.net/EnvThes/20800"
    classificationCode="20800" 
    xml:lang="en">aluminum</subject>
</subjects>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "keywords": [
        {
            "@type": "DefinedTerm",
            "@id": "http://vocabs.lter-europe.net/EnvThes/20800",
            "inDefinedTermSet": "https://vocabs.lter-europe.net/envthes",
            "termCode": "20800",
            "name": "aluminum"
        }
    ]
}

FISH Monument Types FISH Thesaurus Monument Types

https://collectionstrust.org.uk/resource/thesaurus-of-monument-types-fish

Example term:
http://purl.org/heritagedata/schemes/560/concepts/142104

Example usage 
<subjects>
    <subject 
    subjectScheme="FISH Archaeological Sciences Thesaurus" 
    schemeURI="http://purl.org/heritagedata/schemes/560" 
    valueURI="http://purl.org/heritagedata/schemes/560/concepts/142104"
    classificationCode="142104" 
    xml:lang="en">Archaeomagnetism</subject>
</subjects>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "keywords": [
        {
            "@type": "DefinedTerm",
            "@id": "http://purl.org/heritagedata/schemes/560/concepts/142104",
            "inDefinedTermSet": "http://purl.org/heritagedata/schemes/560",
            "termCode": "142104",
            "name": "Archaeomagnetism"
        }
    ]
}

GCMD Vocabulary for Earth Science

https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/find-data/idn/gcmd-keywords

Example term:
https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/b3b14df8-5197-4a26-ae61-882fdba706f3

Example usage 
<subjects>
    <subject 
    subjectScheme="GCMD Vocabulary for Earth Science" 
    schemeURI="https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concepts/concept_scheme/sciencekeywords" 
    valueURI="https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/b3b14df8-5197-4a26-ae61-882fdba706f3"
    classificationCode="b3b14df8-5197-4a26-ae61-882fdba706f3" 
    xml:lang="en">FOOD STORAGE</subject>
</subjects>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "keywords": [
        {
            "@type": "DefinedTerm",
            "@id": "https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/b3b14df8-5197-4a26-ae61-882fdba706f3",
            "inDefinedTermSet": "https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concepts/concept_scheme/sciencekeywords",
            "termCode": "b3b14df8-5197-4a26-ae61-882fdba706f3",
            "name": "FOOD STORAGE"
        }
    ]
}

GEMET General Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus

http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/

Example term:
http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/concept/1500

Example usage 
<subjects>
    <subject 
    subjectScheme="GEMET General Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus" 
    schemeURI="http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet" 
    valueURI="http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/concept/1500"
    classificationCode="1500" 
    xml:lang="en">coal</subject>
</subjects>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "keywords": [
        {
            "@type": "DefinedTerm",
            "@id": "http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/concept/1500",
            "inDefinedTermSet": "http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet",
            "termCode": "1500",
            "name": "coal"
        }
    ]
}

ICD-10 International Classification of Diseases

https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en

Example term:
https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en#/I20-I25

Example usage 
<subjects>
    <subject 
    subjectScheme="ICD-10 International Classification of Diseases" 
    schemeURI="https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/" 
    valueURI="https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en#/I20-I25"
    classificationCode="I20-I25" 
    xml:lang="en">Ischaemic heart diseases</subject>
</subjects>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "keywords": [
        {
            "@type": "DefinedTerm",
            "@id": "https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en#/I20-I25",
            "inDefinedTermSet": "https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/",
            "termCode": "I20-I25",
            "name": "Ischaemic heart diseases"
        }
    ]
}

INSPIRE glossary

https://inspire.ec.europa.eu/glossary

Example term:
http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/glossary/Aqueduct

Example usage 
<subjects>
    <subject 
    subjectScheme="INSPIRE glossary" 
    schemeURI="http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/glossary" 
    valueURI="http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/glossary/Aqueduct"
    classificationCode="Aqueduct" 
    xml:lang="en">Aqueduct</subject>
</subjects>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "keywords": [
        {
            "@type": "DefinedTerm",
            "@id": "http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/glossary",
            "inDefinedTermSet": "http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/glossary/Aqueduct",
            "termCode": "Aqueduct",
            "name": "Aqueduct"
        }
    ]
}

MeSH Medical Subject Headings

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh

Example term:
http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D003069

Example usage 
<subjects>
    <subject 
    subjectScheme="MeSH Medical Subject Headings" 
    schemeURI="http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh" 
    valueURI="http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D003069"
    classificationCode="D003069" 
    xml:lang="en">Coffee</subject>
</subjects>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "keywords": [
        {
            "@type": "DefinedTerm",
            "@id": "http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D003069",
            "inDefinedTermSet": "http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh",
            "termCode": "D003069",
            "name": "Coffee"
        }
    ]
}

NASA Thesaurus NASA STI Thesaurus

https://sti.nasa.gov/nasa-thesaurus

Standard för svensk indelning av forskningsämnen 2011

https://www.scb.se/dokumentation/klassifikationer-och-standarder/standard-for-svensk-indelning-av-forskningsamnen/

Example usage 
<subjects>
    <subject 
    subjectScheme="Standard för svensk indelning av forskningsämnen 2011" 
    schemeURI="https://id.kb.se/term/ssif" 
    classificationCode="105" 
    xml:lang="en">Earth and Related Environmental Sciences</subject>
</subjects>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "keywords": [
        {
            "@type": "DefinedTerm",
            "inDefinedTermSet": "https://id.kb.se/term/ssif",
            "termCode": "105",
            "name": "Earth and Related Environmental Sciences"
        }
    ]
}

Geography

Geonames

Popular vocabulary for countries and lower geographical places.

Examples:
https://sws.geonames.org/2661886/ - Sweden
https://sws.geonames.org/2699050/ - Kronoberg
https://sws.geonames.org/2701727/- Karlshamn

Example usage 
<geoLocations>
    <geoLocation>
        <geoLocationPlace>Sweden</geoLocationPlace>
    </geoLocation>
</geoLocations>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "spatialCoverage": {
        "@type": "Place",
        "@id": "https://sws.geonames.org/2661886/",
        "name": "Sweden",
        "identifier": "SE"
    }
}

Language

Use ISO 639-1 language codes. Examples: en, de, sv

Example usage 
<language>en</language>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "inLanguage": {
        "@type": "Language",
        "name": "Swedish",
        "identifier": "sv"
    }
}

License

Recomendations for open licenses in a swedish context see
"Rekommendation om öppna licenser och immaterialrätt"

SPDX License List

Examples:
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Example usage 
<rightsList>
    <rights 
    ml:lang="en" 
    schemeURI="https://spdx.org/licenses/" 
    rightsIdentifierScheme="SPDX" 
    rightsIdentifier=" CC0-1.0" 
    rightsURI="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">
    Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal</rights>
</rightsList>

{
    "@context":"https://schema.org/",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"
}