IDN Catalogue Profile - Specification
This is the specification of normative requirements for data conforming to the IDN Catalogue Profile. Also presented are mappings from this profile to other models.
Metadata Requirements:
If you want to get started creating information (catalogued item metadata) according to this profile, see the Guidance Document.

Figure 1: This profile overlaps concerns with the DCAT and PROV models and provides for the description of data according to several other assessment models, such as FAIR, CARE etc. The overlaps do indicate which models are needed to cover requirements of the assessment models.
Metadata
- URI
https://w3id.org/idn/def/cp/spec
↗- Name
- IDN Catalogue Profile - Specification
- Is Part Of
- IDN Catalogue Profile
- Description
- The specification of normative requirements for data conforming to the IDN Catalogue Profile.
- Publisher(s)
- Indigenous Data Network
- Creator(s)
- Nicholas J. Car
- Created
- 2022-03-18
- Modified
- 2022-07-20
- Issued
- 2022-07-19
- Version Information
- 0.0.1
- Version IRI
- https://w3id.org/idn/def/cp/spec/0.0.1
- License
- Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- Copyright Holder
- Indigenous Data Network
- Copyright Year
- 2022
Preamble ↑
Abstract ↑
This is the specification document of the IDN Catalogue Profile which is a profile of DCAT, the Data Catalog Vocabulary. Where DCAT is designed for the representation of data catalogues and their content in general, this profile of it aims to cater for the enhanced representation of indigenous data governance.
This document specifies requirements of data that must be met for that data to claim conformance to the IDN Catalogue Profile. Data that conforms to this profile necessarily conforms to DCAT also. This profile also provides mappings from it to models of assessments of principles such as FAIR and CARE so it also specifies additional sub-profiles' requirements necissary for those and other mappings.
This specification document is not to be used for the automated testing of conformance of RDF data to this profile. That role belongs to the machine-readable validation resource:
- SHACL Validator
- Compounded Validator
- FAIR, CARE and other mappings' validators
The first validator above contains tests for this profile's requirements on top of DCAT's. The second contains this profile's tests as well as those from the standards this profile, profiles: DCAT etc. The third - not available yet - contains tests for different FIAR and CARE etc scores, based on the mappings from this profile to models of those assessment systems.
For the list of all resources within this profile, see the profile definition:
Namespaces ↑
This document refers to elements of various ontologies by short codes using namespace prefixes. The prefixes and their corresponding namespaces' URIs are:
- idncp
https://w3id.org/idn/def/cp
- dcat
http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#
- dcterms
http://purl.org/dc/terms/
- owl
http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#
- prof
http://www.w3.org/ns/dx/prof/
- rdf
http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
- rdfs
http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#
- role
http://www.w3.org/ns/dx/prof/role/
- sdo
https://schema.org/
- skos
http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#
- xsd
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#
Conformance ↑
The key words MAY, MUST, MUST NOT, and SHOULD are to be interpreted as described in RFC2119.
The Examples in this document are snippets of RDF data formulated according to the Turtle syntax.
1. Introduction ↑
The IDN Catalogue Profile follows standard patterns of use of elements of DCAT, the Data Catalog Vocabulary, such as Catalog
, Dataset
and so on and some DCAT-recommended ways of expressing relationships from catalogue elements to Agent
instances (people & organisations) using PROV, the Provenance Ontology, and SKOS, SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System.
To cater for indigenous data governance concerns, this profile requires, or at least expects/promotes the use, of specific catalogues of Agent
instances and specific vocabularies of Concept
instances for to classify Dataset
instances with.
So, where using regular DCAT, you might indicate that a Dataset
is themed as being about water where water is selected from a data theming vocabulary, you would also indicate that the dataset is themed as being culturally sensitive using a particular Concept
from this profile's TK Labels vocabulary.
Where using DCAT, with PROV, you might indicate that a Dataset
is related to an Agent
by the property dcterms:contributor
(i.e. the Agent
referenced contributed to the dataset), using this profile you would use the alternate DCAT-recommended qualified agent relations pattern and say that the Dataset
is attributed to the Agent
with the role of contributor where the role referenced is taken from this profile's IDN Role Codes Vocabulary.
In addition to requireing the use of some DCAT-promoted patterns over others and recommended use of particular reference catalogues & vocabularies, this profile also constrains the ways in which several other DCAT properties should be used. All the constraints are still standard DCAT.
2. Requirements ↑
The requirements for data to conform to this profile are listed here. They are organised into the following subsections:
- Structural Requirements - specifying data "shapes" which are the patterns of classes and properties needed
- Values Requirements - specifying particular property values, i.e. classification of Resources according to specific vocabularies
Where model objects are indicated in code
and no namespace is indicated, presume the dcat
, prov
or skos
namespaces are used. There are no class/property overlaps between those models, so there can be no confusion if the object is looked up in those standards.
2.1 Structural Requirements

Figure 2: Overview of elements of the DCAT, PROV & SKOS models and relationships between them used in this profile. Classes of object are shown as chamfered rectangles except for Agent
which is shown as a 'house'. Enclosed arrows indicate the rdfs:subClassOf
relationship. Pink arrows indicate specific value properties.
The following sub-subsections are per object class, where 'class' is one of the classes in this profile's structural overview (see Figure 2 above).
The general idea is that objects of the various class types in the overview diagram are needed for IDN metadata and this section describes their required properties and relations. For example, all Resource
instances must be related to at least one Catalog
instance.
2.1.2 Catalogue
Req C1: Being a Resource
, each Catalog
instance MUST also adhere to the Resource
Requirements R1, R2, R3 & R4.
Req C2: Each Catalog
instance MUST contain at least one Resource
indicated by the hasPart
property.
Example: A Catalogue instance with minimum required metadata <https://doi.org/a-doi-for-the-catalogue> a dcat:Catalog ; dcterms:title "Catalogue X" ; dcterms:description "An example catalogue"@en ; dcterms:created "2022-07-21"^^xsd:date ; dcterms:modified "2022-07-25T20:15:21"^^xsd:dateTime ; prov:qualifiedAttribution [ a prov:Attribution; prov:agent <https://linked.data.gov.au/org/idn> ; # Indigenous Data Network's PID ex:hadRole :custodian ; ] , [ a prov:Attribution; prov:agent <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8742-7730> ; # Nicholas Car's IRI ex:hadRole :pointOfContact ; ] ; dcterms:hasPart ex:some-resource-y , ex:some-resource-z , ... .
2.1.3 Resource
Req R1: Each Resource
instance SHOULD indicate a persistent identifier to be used to gain access to its point-of-truth metadata. The PID SHOULD be used as the Dataset
instance's IRI, if it is an HTTP/HTTPS IRI, or else it SHOULD be quoted as a literal value, indicated with the property dcterms:identifier
of datatype xsd:token
.
Req R2: Each Resource
instance MUST provide basic Resource
metadata so that exactly one of each of the following properties is required with range value as per Resource
requirements: title
, description
, created
& modified
.
Req R3: Allowed Semantic Web date/time properties for created
& modified
properties are xsd:date
, xsd:dateTime
, xsd:dateTimeStamp
, time:Interval
Req R4: Each Resource
instance MUST NOT indicate Agent
roles with direct DCAT properties (e.g. publisher
) and MUST indicate them with the DCAT-recommended PROV qualified attribution pattern with each prov:Attribution
indicated with the property prov:qualifiedAttribution
.
Req R5: Each Resource
instance, if it is not a Catalog
instance MUST and if it is a Catalog
instance MAY indicate that it is within at least one Catalog
instance with an in-bound hasPart
property from a Catalog
instance.
Req R6: Each Resource
instance MAY indicate that it is a specific type of resource by use of the dcterms:type
property. Catalogued Dataset
instances are equivalent to catalogued Resource
instances of dcterms:type
Dataset
.
Example: A Resource instance with minimum required metadata <http://example.com/resource/x> a dcat:Resource ; dcterm:identifier "CAT::2-3-4::X"^^xsd:token ; # Dummy catalogue number dcterms:title "Resource X" ; dcterms:description "An example Resource"@en ; dcterms:created "2022-07-21"^^xsd:date ; dcterms:modified "2022-07-25T20:15:21"^^xsd:dateTime ; prov:qualifiedAttribution [ a prov:Attribution; prov:agent <http://example.com/org/clc> ; # Example Indigenous org PID ex:hadRole :custodian ; ] , [ a prov:Attribution; prov:agent <http://example.com/academic/person-x> ; # An academic ex:hadRole :author ; ] , [ a prov:Attribution; prov:agent <http://example.com/org/xyz-people> ; # An indigenous group ex:hadRole :subjectAgent ; ] ; dcterms:type ex:map ; # An example specialised resource - a map - from some vocabularty of types . <https://doi.org/a-doi-for-a-catalogue> # a catalogue indicating this Resource is a part of it dcterms:hasPart <http://example.com/resource/x> ; .
2.1.3 Dataset
There are no structural requirements specifically for Dataset
instances: the requirements for Resource
also apply to Dataset
.
Note that there are values requirements for Dataset
instnaces, as per the next section.
2.1.1 Attribution
Req A1: Each Attribution
instance MUST indicate an Agent
instance with the property prov:agent
and a role for that Agent
, as a skos:Concept
, in relation to the attributing entity, with the hadRole
property.
Example: A Resource with a qualified Attribution <http://example.com/resource/x> a dcat:Resource ; ... prov:qualifiedAttribution [ a prov:Attribution; prov:agent <http://example.com/resource/central-lands-council> ; dcat:hadRole :custodian ; ] ; ... .
2.1.5 Agent
Agents are the Organisations & People that have Roles in relation to Catalogues and Resources.
Req AG1: Each Agent
instance MUST be either an sdo:Organization
or a sdo:Person
instance.
Req AG2: Each Agent
instance MUST be described with at least the sdo:name
property and, if an sdo:Organization
, also an sdo:url
property with a xsd:anyURI
value or, if a sdo:Person
, an sdo:email
property with a xsd:anyURI
value.
Req AG3: Each Agent
instance SHOULD be described with a sdo:description
property and, if the Agent
has them, identifiers for it should be indicated with sdo:identifier
with xsd:anyURI
or xsd:token
values.
Req AG4: Each Agent
MAY relate other information using schema.org properties, for example sdo:affiliation
to link a sdo:Person
to an sdo:Organization
.
Example: An Organization with an example Australian Business Number identifer and a Person affiliated with it <https://kurrawong.net> a sdo:Organization ; sdo:identifier "31 353 542 036"^^ex:ABN ; sdo:name "Kurrawong AI" ; sdo:description "Kurrawong AI is a small, Artificial Intelligence, company in Australia specialising in Knowledge Graphs." ; sdo:url "https://kurrawong.net"^^xsd:anyURI ; . <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8742-7730> a sdo:Person ; sdo:name "Nicholas J. Car"@en ; sdo:email "nick@kurrawong.net"^^xsd:anyURI ; sdo:affiliation <https://kurrawong.net> ; .
2.1.5 Concept
This profile is a profile of Vocabulary Publications Profile, VocPub, among other specifications. VocPub sets requirements for Concept
and ConceptScheme
instances.
See the VocPub Concept
requirements listed in its Specification:
Example: A Concept with basic VocPub requirements met <http://example.com/concept/x> a skos:Concept ; rdfs:isDefinedBy <http://example.com/concept-scheme/y> ; # Indicating the vocabulary that defines this term skos:prefLabel "Concept X"@en ; # The Concepts preferred label skos:altLabel "Xxx"@en ; # A synonym/alias skos:definition "An example Concept"@en ; # The Concept's definition skos:narrower <http://example.com/concept/x.1> ; .
2.1.6 ConceptScheme
This profile is a profile of Vocabulary Publications Profile, VocPub, among other specifications. VocPub sets requirements for Concept
and ConceptScheme
instances.
See the VocPub ConceptScheme
requirements listed in its Specification's Vocabulary section:
2.2 Values Requirements
IDN metadata must be represented according to certain classes with certain properties, including relations between classes, as defined in the section above. This section defines the requirements for particular properties to indicate particular values. These values are mostly items in particular vocabularies and catalogues managed by the IDN itself and the result of these requirements is to ensure that IDN metadata is related to values understood by the IDN.
Req V1: Each Resource
instance MUST be categorised with at least one value from the IDN Data Themes vocabulary, indicated with a theme
property.
Req V2: The roles of Agent
instances with relation to a Resource
MUST be indicated with the hadRole
property and selected from the IDN Role Codes Vocabulary.
Req V3: Each Agent
instance referenced by an Attribution
instance, if the Agent
is indigenous SHOULD be registered within the IDN Agents Catalogue.
Example: A Resource with a qualified Attribution <http://example.com/resource/x> a dcat:Resource ; ... dcat:theme idth:indigenous-demographics ; # Concept within the IDN Data Themes Vocabulary ... prov:qualifiedAttribution [ a prov:Attribution; # Example Agent that could be registered in the IDN Agents Catalogue prov:agent <http://example.com/resource/central-lands-council> ; dcat:hadRole :custodian ; # Role from the IDN Role Codes Vocabulary ] ; .
3. Extended Example ↑
Snippet examples for many of the Requirements of this Specification are given in the individual Requirements' sections. This section contains a single, larger, example that makes a complete Catalog
instances with content: it is a part of the IDN's Dataset Catalogue.
The IDN Dataset Catalogue that this example is extracted from is online at:
Example: Partial content of the IDN Dataset Catalogue PREFIX dcat: <http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#> PREFIX dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> PREFIX idnth: <https://w3id.org/idn/def/idn-data-themes/> PREFIX idnroles: <https://w3id.org/idn/vocab/idn-role-codes/> PREFIX isoroles: <http://def.isotc211.org/iso19115/-1/2018/CitationAndResponsiblePartyInformation/code/CI_RoleCode/> PREFIX owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> PREFIX prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> PREFIX sdo: <https://schema.org/> PREFIX skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> PREFIX xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> <http://w3id.org/idn/dataset/democat> a dcat:Catalog ; dcterms:title "IDN Demonstration Catalogue" ; dcterms:description """The Indigenous Data Network's catalogue of datasets. This catalogue contains records of datasets in Australia, most of which have some relation to indigenous Australia. The purpose of this catalogue is not to act as a master catalogue of indigenous data in Australia to demonstrate improved metadata models and rating systems for data and metadata in order to improve indigenous data governance. The content of this catalogue conforms to the Indigenous Data Network's Catalogue Profile which is a profile of the DCAT, SKOS and PROV data models."""@en ; dcterms:created "2022-07-31"^^xsd:date ; dcterms:modified "2022-11-09"^^xsd:date ; prov:qualifiedAttribution [ a prov:Attribution; prov:agent <https://linked.data.gov.au/org/idn> ; dcat:hadRole isoroles:author , isoroles:owner , isoroles:custodian ; ] ; dcterms:hasPart <http://example.com/resource/x> ; . <http://example.com/resource/x> a dcat:Dataset ; dcterms:title "Example Dataset 1" ; dcterms:description "This example dataset has a minimalist metadata record that is valid according to the Indigenous Data Network's Catalogue Profile"@en ; dcterms:created "2022-07-31"^^xsd:date ; dcterms:modified "2022-07-31"^^xsd:date ; dcat:theme idnth:indigenous-demographics ; prov:qualifiedAttribution [ a prov:Attribution ; prov:agent <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8742-7730> ; dcat:hadRole isoroles:author ; # not being a real dataset, it has no roles other than 'author' for Agents associated with it ] ; . # From the IDN Agents Catalogue <https://linked.data.gov.au/org/idn> a sdo:Organization ; sdo:name "Indigenous Data Network" ; sdo:description "The IDN is within the University of Melbourne. It was established in 2018 to support and coordinate the governance of Indigenous data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to decide their own local data priorities." ; sdo:url "https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/centres-institutes/centre-for-health-equity/research-group/indigenous-data-network"^^xsd:anyURI ; . # From the IDN Agents Catalogue <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8742-7730> a sdo:Person ; sdo:name "Nicholas J. Car"@en ; sdo:email "nick@kurrawong.net"^^xsd:anyURI ; sdo:affiliation <https://kurrawong.net> ; . <https://kurrawong.net> a sdo:Organization ; sdo:name "Kurrawong AI" ; sdo:description "Kurrawong AI is a small, Artificial Intelligence, company in Australia specialising in Knowledge Graphs." ; sdo:url "https://kurrawong.net"^^xsd:anyURI ; . # From the IDN Data Themes Vocabulary idnth:indigenous-demographics a skos:Concept ; skos:prefLabel "Indigenous Demographics"@en ; skos:definition "Concerned with the demographics of indigenous people in Australia"@en ; skos:inScheme <https://w3id.org/idn/def/idn-data-themes> ; . # From the IDN Role Codes Vocabulary isoroles:author a skos:Concept ; skos:prefLabel "Author"@en ; skos:definition "party who authored the resource"@en ; skos:inScheme <https://w3id.org/idn/vocab/idn-role-codes> ; . isoroles:owner a skos:Concept ; skos:prefLabel "Owner"@en ; skos:definition "party that owns the resource"@en ; skos:inScheme <https://w3id.org/idn/vocab/idn-role-codes> ; . isoroles:custodian a skos:Concept ; skos:prefLabel "Custodian"@en ; skos:definition "party that accepts accountability and responsibility for the resource and ensures appropriate care and maintenance of the resource"@en ; skos:inScheme <https://w3id.org/idn/vocab/idn-role-codes> ; .
The content for the example above can be accessed online from the IDN Dataset Catalogue's content repository:
Annex A. Mappings↑
This Annex defines mappings between this Profile and assessment models.
A.1. FAIR Mapping↑
A.2. Indigeneity Mapping↑
A.3. CARE Mapping↑
A.4. Local Context Labels Mapping↑
Annex B. Assessment Models↑
B.1. FAIR Model↑
B.2. Indigeneity Model↑
B.3. CARE Model↑
B.4. Local Context Labels Model↑
B.4.1 Introduction
"The primary objectives of Local Contexts are to enhance and legitimize locally based decision-making and Indigenous governance frameworks for determining ownership, access, and culturally appropriate conditions for sharing historical, contemporary and future collections of cultural heritage and Indigenous data"
This Local Context model is a small ontology providing just a few classes and properties to indicate how to attach LC labels to objects catalogued according to this profile.
The machine-readable version of this model is available at:
The prefix lc:
is used in this section for the namespace of this model: https://w3id.org/idn/def/lc-contexts/
.
Figure B.4.1 overviews the model.
This model requires that a LocalContextLabel
, which is a specialised skos:Concept
, is assigned to a catalogued dcat:Resource
via an intermediate node of type QualifiedLocalContext
. This use of the "Qualified Relations" graph modelling pattern allows for the nature of the Resource
/LocalContextLabel
relationship to be defined.
B.4.2 Definitions
B.4.2 LocalContextLabel
class definition
Property | Value |
---|---|
IRI | https://w3id.org/idn/def/lc-contexts/LocalContextLabel |
Preferred Label | Local Context Label |
Definition | A label to be applied to data that allow communities to express local and specific conditions for sharing and engaging in future research and relationships in ways that are consistent with already existing community rules, governance and protocols |
Source | https://localcontexts.org/labels/traditional-knowledge-labels/ |
Subclass Of | SKOS Concept |
Expected Properties | Standard SKOS Concept properties |
B.4.2.2 QualifiedLocalContext
class definition
Property | Value |
---|---|
IRI | https://w3id.org/idn/def/lc-contexts/QualifiedLocalContext |
Preferred Label | Qualified Local Context |
Definition | An association between an RDF Resource and a Local Context Label that allows for the nature of the relationship to be defined |
Provenance | Developed for this data model, based on standard Linked Data graph patterns |
Subclass Of | SKOS Concept |
Expected Properties |
|
B.4.2.3 requirement
property definition
Property | Value |
---|---|
IRI | https://w3id.org/idn/def/lc-contexts/requirement |
Preferred Label | requirement |
Definition | A description of the necessity for a Local Context Label |
Provenance | Developed for this data model, to cater for labels needed but not present |
Domain | Qualified Local Context |
Range | A textual, literal, value |
B.4.3 LocalContextLabel
instances
LocalContextLabel
instances for all defined TK & BC labels are given in two vocabularies:
An example of RDF data for one of these labels is:
PREFIX tk: <https://w3id.org/idn/def/tk-labels/> tk:women-restricted a skos:Concept , lc:TKLabel ; dcterms:identifier "women-restricted"^^xsd:token ; dcterms:source "https://localcontexts.org/label/tk-women-restricted/"^^xsd:anyURI ; rdfs:isDefinedBy cs: ; skos:definition "This Label should be used when you want to let external users know that the material circulating freely is actually of a highly restricted nature. This is a Women’s Highly Restricted Label and indicates that there are restrictions of access and use based on customary law. This Label can be used to help external users recognize that with this material there are very specific protocols and conditions of use. This Label is designed to recognize that some knowledge is gendered, and that certain knowledge expressions can only be shared among specific members of the community. Only authorized [and/or initiated] women within the community should be using this material."@en ; skos:inScheme cs: ; skos:notation "TK WR" ; skos:prefLabel "Women Restricted"@en ; .
B.4.4 Examples of a Resource
with LC labels
Example: A Dataset that does have a label applied to it but requires one <https://www.atsida.edu.au/archive/datasets/au.edu.anu.ada.ddi.20002-aus> a dcat:Dataset; dcterms:title "Annual Aboriginal Census,1921-1944 - Australia"@en ; ... dcat:theme [ a lc:QualifiedLocalContext ; dcterms:type tk:culturally-sensitive ; lc:requirement "This dataset contains information collected in ways no longer thought to be best practice. The data may, if used unwarily, put indigenous people in an un-due negative light."@en ; ] ; ... .
Example: A Dataset that does have a label applied to it but requires one <http://dx.doi.org/10.26193/V93KUP> a dcat:Dataset; dcterms:title "Aboriginal radio broadcasting in Alice Springs, 1981"@en ; ... dcat:theme [ a lc:QualifiedLocalContext ; dcterms:type tk:multiple-communities ; rdf:value "Responsibility and ownership over this material is spread across several distinct communities. Use will be dependent upon discussion and negotiation with the multiple communities named herein Central Lands Council, Waltja Tjutangku Palyapayi Aboriginal Corporation, Akeyulerre Healing Centre. Decisions about use will need to be decided collectively. As an external user of this material you are asked to recognize and respect cultural protocols in relation to the use of this material and clear your intended use with the relevant communities."@en ; ] ; ... .
References ↑
- RFC2119
- Bradner, S. Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. March 1997. Internet Engineering Task Force. Best Current Practice. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2119
- PROF
- Rob Atkinson; Nicholas J. Car (eds.). The Profiles Vocabulary. 18 December 2019. W3C Working Group Note. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/dx-prof/
- PROV
- Timothy Lebo, Satya Sahoo, Deborah McGuinness (eds.). PROV-O: The PROV Ontology. 30 April 2013. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/prov-o/
- Semantic Web
- World Wide Web Consortium. Semantic Web 2015. Web Page. URL: https://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/, accessed 2020-06-14
- Turtle
- World Wide Web Consortium. RDF 1.1 Turtle Terse RDF Triple Language, W3C Recommendation (25 February 2014). URL: https://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/