[cdif-community] Definition of schema:Dataset

[Peter Winstanley]

HI Donald

In some respects a dataset is an idea for some managed information under a single curator that needs initially to be identified and then populated - so you'd have an identifier for a datasets and then providing some information about what it is (going to be) about - and that might be before you have any 'data' in it.

The cataloging of datasets starts off with recording the things that you have which are not recorded, but once that is done you need you process to record the description of the data as it is being recorded.  So, we can start with dcat:Resource, and then update that as the resource comes into being (dcat:Dataset, dcat:Distribution, etc)

Peter
________________________________
From: cdif-community <cdif-community-bounces at lists.codata.org> on behalf of Donald Hobern <donald.hobern at adelaide.edu.au>
Sent: 13 October 2025 08:16
To: cdif-community at lists.codata.org <cdif-community at lists.codata.org>
Subject: [cdif-community] Definition of schema:Dataset

I'd like to check that there is a consistent definition for what we label as a schema:Dataset. Schema.org defined it as "A body of structured information describing some topic(s) of interest" (https://schema.org/Dataset). In line with this, RO-Crate seems to use Dataset as a container for one or more Files via schema:hasPart (e.g. https://www.researchobject.org/ro-crate/specification/1.2/introduction.html). Science on Schema.org doesn't provide a definition at https://github.com/ESIPFed/science-on-schema.org/blob/main/guides/Dataset.md, but my reading is that it expects a Dataset to be a file that contains PropertyValues.

Based on RO-Crate usage, I've been expecting to use schema:Dataset to describe the set of data, metadata and other files I expect to store together as the RO-Crate. I have also expected to use Dataset to delimit subsets of the RO-Crate that merit describing as self-contained subunits worth describing separately. This would mean that a simple RO-Crate would be a Dataset and that it would have multiple Files as parts. A more complicated RO-Crate would be a Dataset that has multiple Files and Datasets as parts (with the nested Datasets themselves having Files as parts). Based on this interpretation, most Datasets have a one-to-one relationship with a Folder.

Does this align with the expectations of other groups interested in CDIF? In short, is a schema:Dataset 1) a collection of Files representing the results of a study or 2) a File that contains PropertyValues (using e.g. CSV, NetCDF, HDF5, ...)?

Thanks,

Donald


Donald Hobern
Data Management Director, Australian Plant Phenomics Network
University of Adelaide - working from Canberra, ACT

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