RIF-CS

The Registry Interchange Format - Collections and Services (RIF-CS) is an XML vocabulary for representing metadata about data collections and related entities based on ISO 2146.^[1]

It is a machine-readable format to describe metadata about data collections. Similar to how MARC standards are used by library systems to describe books, RIF-CS is used to describe data collections. For example, a RIF-CS record can describe a spreadsheet containing experimental results: it might contain the title, description, creator, keywords, date the experiment was conducted and a URL to obtain the actual spreadsheet. Another RIF-CS record can describe the person who created the spreadsheet: it might contain their name, address and contact email.

RIF-CS documents, containing RIF-CS records, are exchanged between computer systems. For example, a university can send the RIF-CS documents to a national database, where it can be indexed and searched. People can download RIF-CS records from a national database to use the information to find out more about the data and/or the researcher.

Model

The metadata describes the entity as well relationships between the entities. RIF-CS represents metadata about the following types of entities, which it calls registry objects:^[2]

• Collections
• Parties
• Activities
• Services

These entities are based on the entities defined in ISO 2146.^[3]

The registry objects contain either embedded information or links to other registry objects. Some information is represented directly in the registry object; for example: names, descriptions and dates. Other information is represented by a link to another registry object: for example, the creator for a collection (research data) is a link to another registry object that describes the party (a researcher).

Use

RIF-CS is used in Australian universities and industry as a format for submitting metadata to the Australian National Data Service (ANDS) Research Data Australia service.^[4]

In that context, collections represent collections of research data; parties represent people and groups; activities represent research projects or programs; services represent ways to access the research data collections.

RIF-CS is only a representation of the metadata. To exchange RIF-CS a protocol, such as OAI-PMH, is used.

Example

This example RIF-CS document contains a collection record and a party record.

 <?xml version="1.0"?>
 <registryObjects xmlns="http://ands.org.au/standards/rif-cs/registryObjects">
  
   <registryObject group="G1">
     <key>urn:uuid:7d9127c5-b97e-4474-87a3-68f2c219c609</key>
     <originatingSource>http://www.example.com/thales/source</originatingSource>
     <collection type="dataset" dateModified="2013-03-14T15:09:26Z">
       <identifier type="local">urn:uuid:dec9b127-0d24-4d12-aaf2-a71e9ed29f75</identifier>
       <name type="primary"><namePart>Test data</namePart></name>
       <name type="alternative"><namePart>Data for testing</namePart></name>
       <description type="full">Data used for testing.</description>
       <subject type="local">test</subject>
       <location>
          <address>
            <electronic type="email">
              <value>[e-mail]</value>
            </electronic>
          </address>
        </location>
        <location>
          <address>
            <electronic type="url">
              <value>http://www.example.edu/data/1234</value>
            </electronic>
          </address>
        </location>
        <coverage>
          <temporal>
            <date type="dateFrom" dateFormat="W3CDTF">2012</date>
            <date type="dateTo" dateFormat="W3CDTF">2013</date>
          </temporal>
        </coverage>
        <relatedInfo>
          <identifier type="uri">http://www.example.com/foobar</identifier>
        </relatedInfo>
        <relatedObject>
          <key>urn:uuid:30fda6cd-5b08-4376-a1b7-2ee40144d9da</key>
          <relation type="hasCollector"/>
        </relatedObject>
     </collection>
   </registryObject>
  
   <registryObject group="G1">
     <key>urn:uuid:30fda6cd-5b08-4376-a1b7-2ee40144d9da</key>
     <originatingSource>http://www.example.com/thales/source</originatingSource>
     <party type="person" dateModified="2013-03-14T07:14:25Z">
       <identifier type="ORCID">http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9501-6966</identifier>
       <name type="primary">
         <namePart type="title">Dr</namePart>
         <namePart type="given">John</namePart>
         <namePart type="family">Citizen</namePart>
       </name>
     </party>
   </registryObject>
  
 </registryObjects>

References

1. Global Registries, "The Registry Interchange Format - Collections and Services (RIF-CS)", Retrieved on 4 January 2013.
2. Australian National Data Service, "Learn about RIF-CS", Retrieved on 4 January 2013.
3. ISO, "ISO 2146:2010 Information and documentation - Registry services for libraries and related organizations".
4. Australian National Data Service, "Research Data Australia".