For full Software Citation Principles see:
Smith AM, Katz DS, Niemeyer KE, FORCE11 Software Citation Working Group. (2016) Software citation principles. PeerJ Computer Science 2:e86 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.86
Unique identifier â recommend a DOI
Identifier
with identifierType âDOIâ
For software a decision may need to be made about whether the ID is for a specific version of a piece of software (recommended by Force11 Software Citation Principles), for a piece of software i.e. all versions or for the latest version.
Software name
Title
May be the title of a dataset or the name of a piece of software.
Author
Creator
May include those responsible for software creation.
Contributor
Contributor
For software, if there is an alternate entity that âholds, archives, publishes, prints, distributes, releases, issues, or produces the code, use the contributorType âHostingInstitutionâ for the code repository.
Contributor role
contributorType
See Definition in contributorType Appendix: Distributor: Includes distribution of software.
See Example for HostingInstitution: Includes software or run code repositories.
Version number
Version
See Version example: Software engineering practice follows this approach of tracking changes and giving new version numbers.
Release date
PublicationYear
See definition:
In the case of resources such as software where there may be multiple releases in one year, other DataCite metadata or information such as the landing page should enable users to identify the newest one.
Location/repository
Publisher or Contributor/contributorType âHostingInstitutionâ
For software, use Publisher for Code Repository, following the data model. If there is an alternate entity that "holds, archives, publishes, prints, distributes, releases, issues, or produces" the code, use the contributorType "hostingInstitution" for the code repository."
Indexed citations
(and links between software versions)
relationType +
RelationTypes of use for software.
HasVersion, IsVersionOf
HasVersion - The registered resource such as a software package or code repository has a versioned instance (indicates A has the instance B) e.g. it may be used to relate an un- versioned code repository to one of its specific software versions.
IsVersionOf - The registered resource is an instance of a target resource (indicates that A is an instance of B) e.g. it may be used to relate a specific version of a software package to its software code repository.
IsNewVersionOf, IsPreviousVersionOf
IsNewVersionOf: can be used for âedition or software release etc.â
IsPreviousVersionOf: can be used for âedition or software release etc.â
IsDerivedFrom, IsSourceOf
IsDerivedFrom and IsSourceOf: Can be used to denote software that is a fork of other software or is the origin of a fork.
IsPartOf,HasPart
IsPartOf and HasPart: may be used for individual software modules
IsDocumentedBy, Documents
IsDocumentedBy and Documents: e.g. points to software documentation
IsVariantFormOf, IsOriginalFormOf
IsVariantFormOf and IsOriginalFormOf: May be used for different software operating systems or compiler formats, for example. Indicates that A is a variant or different form or packaging of B.
IsRequiredBy, Requires
IsRequiredBy: the registered resource A is called by or is required by software resource B.
Requires: the registered resource A calls or requires software resource B.
Software licenses
Rights
See example: May be used for software licenses.
Description
Description
Description with descriptionType âTechnicalInfoâ
Description with descriptionType âAbstractâ
TechnicalInfo: for software description, this may include a readme.text, and necessary environmental information (hardware, operational software, applications/programs) that cannot be described using other properties such as âFormat/versionâ or âDescription/summaryâ
Keywords
Subject
Existing guidance applies: Subject, keyword, classification code, or key phrase describing the resource.
Updated 19 days ago