We are pleased to announce the release of version 3.0 of the resource types vocabulary. Since 2015, three COAR Controlled Vocabularies have been developed and are maintained by the Controlled Vocabulary Editorial Board: Resource types, access rights and version types. These vocabularies have a new look and are now being managed using the iQvoc platform, hosted by the University of Vienna Library.
Using controlled vocabularies enables repositories to be consistent in describing their resources, helps with search and discovery of content, and allows machine readability for interoperability. The COAR vocabularies are available in several languages, supporting multilingualism across repositories. They also play a key role in making semantic artifacts and repositories compliant with the FAIR Principles, in particular when it comes to findability and interoperability.
What is new in the resource types vocabulary 3.0?
Version 3.0 introduces major changes in terms of additional concepts to the vocabulary. In total, 30 new concepts have been introduced in this release. Most notably, the research data types have been expanded under datasets with 13 new sub-concepts. These new sub-concepts will support data repositories and other repositories describe their datasets in a more granular way. The second main area of expansion is patents, which provides more granularity in defining intellectual property resources. They describe a variety of different patent types in the world, some of which are specific to a given jurisdiction. Thirdly, the design concept was expanded to include industrial design and layout design. This release also responds to recent developments and future expectations in the area of scholarly publishing. In line with the COAR’s Next Generation Repositories Initiative and the COAR Notify Project, the review type has been expanded to include three sub-concepts: book review, commentary and peer review.
Several concepts from the vocabulary were also deprecated from the previous version in cases where the concepts were no longer in use or are covered in the definition of another concept. However, the deprecated concepts will remain available within their respective vocabulary versions and the PURL URIs will continue to resolve them in case there are repositories still using them.
The new look and feel
All three COAR controlled vocabularies now have a new look and feel at https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org. Each release, with relevant documentation including information about the contributors, as well as links to various formats (e.g. SKOS RDF), is available on this website. Available software plugins are also listed on the same page. Open source service providers are invited to share their own URLs to be listed here if they have implemented the vocabularies in their software.
The new host and the use of iQvoc for COAR controlled vocabularies
Last but not least, the COAR controlled vocabularies has a new host institution, the University of Vienna Library. They provide in-kind support and host the vocabulary management system, iQvoc, on their servers for COAR. We are grateful to the University of Vienna Library for their generous support and we would like to thank the FAO of the United Nations and the Bielefeld University for previously hosting and maintaining the vocabularies since 2015. We would also like to thank the Editorial Board members for their continued support and contributions to the vocabularies.
Contribute to and adopt the COAR controlled vocabularies
The COAR controlled vocabularies are reviewed once a year and ongoing discussions take place regularly in the Editorial Board meetings throughout the year. Any feedback about the vocabularies is most welcome through this online form which is available on the main COAR website as well as on the dedicated site for the vocabularies.
The COAR vocabularies are multilingual and aim to reflect the diversity of content types and nature that may be found in thousands of repositories across the world. The Resource types vocabulary is available in 15 languages, access rights are available in 13 languages and the version types are available in 10 languages. If you would like to translate the COAR vocabularies into any of the missing languages, please contact the COAR Office. Further, another distinctive feature of the COAR vocabularies is their mappings to the related concepts in like minded vocabularies. Building and maintaining a network of relations amongst URI-supported vocabularies greatly enhances discovery and enrichment of an open scholarly system. The Editorial Board checks the validity of such mappings on a regular basis and encourages third party initiatives to get in touch so as to include/edit links to their concepts.
We encourage repository managers to adopt the vocabularies. Our implementation guide for adopting vocabularies should help for different repository software platforms including DSpace, Samvera/Hyrax, Haplo, Eprints and Open Journal Systems. FAQs on the COAR website can also help new adopters of the vocabularies.
