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FAIR² and Contributor Role Ontology (CRO) Integration

Overview

The FAIR² specification integrates the Contributor Role Ontology (CRO) to enable structured attribution of dataset contributions. This enhances transparency, supports scholarly credit, and aligns with established contributor role taxonomies such as CRediT.

By leveraging CRO, FAIR² metadata can express contributor roles in a machine-readable, semantically valid format that supports automated indexing, provenance tracking, and responsible data stewardship.

Use of CRO in FAIR² Metadata

Contributor roles in FAIR² are expressed using:

  • schema:contribution to list agents (e.g., persons or organizations)
  • prov:hadRole to link contributors to formal role definitions from CRO
  • cro:ContributorRole instances as the role class or term
FAIR² Property Ontology Term Purpose
schema:contribution schema:Person, prov:Agent Identifies individuals or organizations who contributed
prov:hadRole cro:ContributorRole Specifies the contributor's role using CRO terms

Example: JSON-LD Metadata with CRO Roles

{
  "@context": [
    "https://fair2.ai/spec/fair2_context"
  ],
  "@type": "Dataset",
  "name": "FAIR AI Benchmark Dataset",
  "contribution": [
    {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "Dr. Alice Smith",
      "prov:hadRole": {
        "@id": "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/CRO_0000039",
        "rdfs:label": "Conceptualization"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "John Doe",
      "prov:hadRole": {
        "@id": "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/CRO_0000027",
        "rdfs:label": "Data Curation"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Ontology Mapping and Semantics

The following example illustrates the semantic structure of contributor roles using RDF vocabulary:

{
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@id": "schema:Person",
      "@type": "rdfs:Class",
      "rdfs:label": "Person",
      "rdfs:comment": "An individual or entity that contributed to the dataset."
    },
    {
      "@id": "prov:hadRole",
      "@type": "rdf:Property",
      "rdfs:label": "Has Role",
      "rdfs:domain": "schema:Person",
      "rdfs:range": "cro:0000001"
    },
    {
      "@id": "cro:0000001",
      "@type": "rdfs:Class",
      "rdfs:label": "Contributor Role"
    }
  ]
}

SHACL Constraints for Contributor Roles

FAIR² defines SHACL constraints to validate the use of prov:hadRole in contribution metadata:

{
  "@context": [
    "https://fair2.ai/spec/fair2_context",
    "https://fair2.ai/spec/shacl_context"
  ],
  "@id": "fair2s:ContributionShape",
  "@type": "sh:NodeShape",
  "sh:targetClass": "schema:Contribution",
  "sh:property": [
    {
      "sh:path": "prov:hadRole",
      "sh:minCount": 1,
      "sh:description": "Each contribution must include at least one role.",
      "sh:or": [
        {
          "sh:class": "cro:CRO_0000001"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

This ensures that each contribution includes a role and that the role is correctly typed using the CRO ontology.

CRO and the CRediT Taxonomy

The Contributor Role Ontology (CRO) integrates the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), offering a controlled vocabulary of standardized contributor roles. Each CRediT role is mapped to a persistent URI, enabling semantic interoperability and machine-actionable credit assignment.

Examples of CRO IDs for CRediT Roles

Role CRO URI
Conceptualization CREDIT_00000001
Data Curation CREDIT_00000002
Formal Analysis CREDIT_00000003
Funding Acquisition CREDIT_00000004
Methodology CREDIT_00000006
Software CREDIT_00000009
Supervision CREDIT_00000010
Writing – Original Draft CREDIT_00000013
Writing – Review & Editing CREDIT_00000014

For a complete list, visit: http://purl.org/credit/ontology

Next Steps

To begin using contributor roles in FAIR²:

  1. Review the Getting Started Guide
  2. Examine the FAIR² Schema for contribution properties
  3. Validate contributor metadata using SHACL rules
  4. Join ongoing discussions on extending role support via GitHub Issues

For contribution-related inquiries or suggestions, please contact:
📩 feedback@fair2.ai

Last updated: 2025-03-14