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PSDI Vocabulary Description

Summary​

The PSDI vocabulary is part of the metadata for the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI) and it defines key terms used within the project, infrastructure and platform. The latest released version is available at: https://metadata.psdi.ac.uk/psdi-voc.jsonld.

This document outlines guidelines specific to this vocabulary profile in the PSDI metadata - there are general guidelines for the PSDI metadata as a whole in PSDI Metadata General Guidelines which will not be repeated here.

This vocabulary corresponds to the "Core Controlled Vocabularies" profile in Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework.

A human-readable version of the definitions in the "PSDI top-level terms collection" collection is available at PSDI Terminology.

Purpose of PSDI vocabulary​

  • consistent vocabulary for the PSDI team
  • understanding of terminology for PSDI contributors and user
  • discoverability and interpretation of PSDI applications and components for machines and indexes

What is included?​

The initial scope of the SKOS vocabulary is to define "PSDI top-level terms collection" which all belong to the skos:collection with @id [psdiVoc:psdiOverviewCollection].

Background reading​

  1. Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework
  2. SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System Primer
  3. SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System Reference
  4. "Ten simple rules for making a vocabulary FAIR" Cox SJD, Gonzalez-Beltran AN, Magagna B, Marinescu MC (2021) Ten simple rules for making a vocabulary FAIR. PLOS Computational Biology 17(6): e1009041. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009041
  5. Check against A checklist for complete vocabulary metadata

Overall Format​

  • The output is a SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System thesaurus in JSON-LD format.
  • It is a thesaurus rather than a controlled vocabulary or taxonomy because it contains more information about each concept including: preferred and alternative terms, and relationships to related concepts.
  • According to the SKOS schema, each defined term is presented as a skos:Concept within the skos:ConceptScheme which represents the whole vocabulary.
  • The default namespace is ["psdiVoc": "http://metadata.psdi.ac.uk/psdi-voc#"].

Top-level vocabulary metadata fields​

Concepts​

  • Each [skos:Concept] concept within the vocabulary attempts to:
    • say what the term "is"
    • give a short clear definition
    • be well connected to each other where needed via [skos:related], [skos:broader] and [skos:narrower] relationships
    • where possible and appropriate be assigned an ontological type via the rdf:type property – however, these need to be logically consistent with the ontology commitments of terms used
  • Required fields for this vocabulary are:
  • Optional fields are:
    • skos:altLabel
    • skos:related - we use this to highlight related terms (those mentioned in the definition) and aim for these to be reciprocal.
    • skos:broader - we only currently use this for the terms in relation to hasTopConcept
    • skos:narrower - we only currently use this for the terms in relation to hasTopConcept
    • skos:example
    • [rdf:hasType] with a value that links to the PID of an ontology term
  • After modification follow steps in Validation section

Versioning​

  • After changes are made to this file the following top-level metadata fields for the file are checked and updated if necessary - see "Rule 10" of Ten simple rules for making a vocabulary FAIR:
    • [dc:modified] — date that the vocabulary or term was last updated
    • increment [dc:Version] using semantic versioning
  • Also consider use of the following terms for altered concepts where appropriate:
    • [dcterms:isReplacedBy] — to point to a superseding vocabulary or term
    • [dcterms:replaces] — to point to a prior version of a vocabulary or term
    • [skos:changeNote] — modifications to a term relative to prior versions
    • [skos:historyNote] — past state/use/meaning of a term

Validation​

See general JSON-LD metadata validation outlined in PSDI Metadata Checking Guidelines. Additional validation specific to this profile:

Future development (beyond PSDI version 1)​

  • [dcterms:language] - if other languages if required at a later point we will revisit this
  • In time if this ConceptScheme is used for describing enumerations appearing the the data we will need to have a [skos:Notation], and not have more than one according to p72 in D2.3: Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF)
About this page
  • Creator: Aileen Day
  • Last modified date: 2025-04-09