Convert Spreadsheet

Template

Metadata Schemas

Tab Breakdown

• Examples in the Template

Column Breakdown

• RootDataset
• @context
• Custom Terms
• Authors
• Publishers
• Licenses
• Provenance
• People
• Places
• Localities
• Objects
• Files
• Schemas
• Columns

Convert Spreadsheet to an RO-Crate with Crate-O

Template

For collections where there are a lot of interconnected objects and files, it may be easier or preferable to add the metadata for these via converting a spreadsheet to an RO-Crate in Crate-O, rather than adding these items manually. An RO-Crate metadata spreadsheet template can be downloaded below and populated with metadata specific to your collection:

ro-crate-metadata-template.xlsx

This template can be edited in Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc or Google Sheets. It is not compatible with Apple Numbers.

The template is based on an example data collection that contains three types of files within each object:

• Audio files (WAV), the primary material
• Text files (CSV), transcriptions of the audio files
• ELAN files (EAF), linguistic annotations of the audio files

Spreadsheet conversion currently only has functionality to add new data, and cannot overwrite or edit existing data in your RO-Crate.

Metadata Schemas

The spreadsheet uses a number of standard vocabularies for terms. Namespaces such as ldac and pcdm are prefixed to some metadata in the sections below - this is to:

• indicate that the term is not a part of the Schema.org vocabulary which RO-Crate is based on, but uses another namespace
• avoid overlaps where multiple schemas have the same term but differing usages and definitions.

In Crate-O, these prefixes are hidden for legibility.

If your collection requires metadata terms that are not present in the template, check if an existing term fits from the schemas below.

• Schema.org: No prefix needed, e.g. description.
• Language Data Commons Schema Terms (Can also be browsed through the Metadata for Language Data GitBook): Add the prefix ldac, e.g. ldac:interviewer.
• Dublin Core Metadata Terms: Add the prefix dct, e.g. dct:rightsHolder.

If you have terms specific to your collection that aren’t covered by the above schemas, see the Custom Terms tab on how to use them.

Tab Breakdown

The spreadsheet has the below tabs by default, but depending on your collection, you may need to add additional tabs, or others may not be applicable.

ELAN (.eaf) files can have relative or absolute paths to the data they relate to. The ELAN preferences file is generally not needed for the collection and relates to the particular ELAN user only.

Examples in the Template

Below the header, at least one example row is included to illustrate how the section can be filled. This is colour-coded according to whether the column:

• requires the user to manually input data (blue)
• is pre-filled with a formula or static value and doesn’t require editing (green)
• is for internal use and doesn’t require editing in most cases (orange).

HINT: Highlight the example row and drag it down to copy all the pre-filled cells. Remember to remove the example rows before you convert your spreadsheet in Crate-O!

The columns provided in the template tabs are illustrative only and may not all apply to your collection; please edit these as needed. Where a column header begins with a full stop ., this indicates that the column will be ignored when the data is loaded into Crate-O and will not appear in the RO-Crate. This can be helpful if you want to retain other information in your spreadsheet that may not be in a format applicable to the RO-Crate.

At a minimum, it’s best practice to include @id and @type columns in each of your spreadsheet tabs, as these appear in Crate-O for each of the entities. The tables in the next sections provide further detail on what constitutes a valid @id and @type in each tab.

HINT: To type a column name beginning with @ in Excel, put an apostrophe before it '@. This will force it to be recognised as a text value rather than a formula.

Column Breakdown

The section below describes each of the columns included in the template, ordered by tab. Please note that the columns provided in the template tabs are illustrative only and should be edited according to the requirements of your collection.

RootDataset

The root dataset tab provides information about the top level of the collection. Unlike the other tabs, the root dataset tab lists items row by row and can only have one column, so if there are rows that require more than one value (like @type), duplicate that row.

The prefix isRef_ indicates that data in this column should be taken from another @id field in the spreadsheet. For example, isRef_author uses the @id from the Author tab to link all the author details to the RootDataset tab.

@context

The context specifies the vocabulary or schema that is intended to be used with the collection. In the case of language data, the Language Data Commons Schema (ldac) is used. This is also the place to specify the schema for Custom Terms if these occur in your collection.

Custom Terms

If you have terms specific to your collection that aren’t covered by the existing Metadata Schemas, use the custom terms tab to add them.

Metadata terms are organised according to the following entity types. Use the types that are most useful for your collection.

Entity	Description	Examples
Property	Used for attributes of the thing you are describing, similar to fields you might see on a form. If you want the value of the term to be free text, e.g. name, age, make a property. If you have a set of finite values for the term, like multiple choice, make a property as the overarching term.	motherTongue register
Defined Term Sets	Used to define a group of terms that can be used under a single property. If you have a set of finite values for a property, like multiple choice, make a defined term set to group these.	RegisterTerms
Defined Terms	Used for the values of a defined term set that are used under a single property. If you have a set of finite values for a property, like multiple choice, make each of these a defined term.	GovernmentEnglish PrivateWritten PublicWritten SpeechBased

In the template, the example contains a property, two defined terms, and a defined term set. The property #textType has the defined term set #TextTypeTerms, which contains the two defined terms #Speech and #Interview.

Properties should start with a lowercase letter, whereas Defined Terms and Defined Term Sets start with uppercase.

Using Custom Terms on Other Tabs

Once you’ve listed your custom terms, these can be used throughout the spreadsheet in the following ways:

• Properties: as column headers in the format custom:yourProperty
• Defined Terms: as column values under their related custom property in the format custom:YourDefinedTerm

Defined Term Sets are only required in the Custom Terms tab to group a set of Defined Terms and don’t need to be used elsewhere in the spreadsheet.

Authors

An author is a person or organisation responsible for creating the collection. It is possible for collections to have multiple authors.

Publishers

A publisher is an organisation responsible for releasing the collection. It is possible for collections to have multiple publishers.

Licenses

A license for a collection establishes the conditions for who can access, share and reuse the data, and other conditions as required. It is a legal arrangement between the creator of the data and the end-user specifying what users can do with the data.

It is possible to leave the licensing tab blank if these details are still being finalised for the collection, however, this will need to be amended later in Crate-O.

If there are any additional usage restrictions or options for use outside of a given license, this information can be included in a usageInfo field, e.g. “For any use not permitted by the CC-BY-ND 4.0 License, please contact the Data Steward”.

Provenance

The provenance for a collection details the documented history from an item’s creation to its current location within a collection, including changes in format and tools required to read the file.

People

This tab contains information about the people within the collection.

Places

This tab contains information about the places within the collection.

Localities

This tab contains information about the geometric locations within the collection.

Objects

An object is a single resource or a group of tightly related resources in a collection. For example, a work (document) in a written corpus, or the files associated with a dialogue or session in a speech study (recordings, transcriptions, etc.). Some systems, such as PARADISEC, refer to Objects as Items or may use other terms.

Files

A file is a container for data and can store data in different formats. A single object could have an audio file as well as a text file containing a transcription of the audio. Three examples of file types are included in the template: CSV, EAF and WAV.

Schemas

If you have tabular CSV files in your collection, a schema allows you to define tabular formats for the tables used within the collection, which are further detailed in the Columns tab.

Columns

If you have tabular CSV files in your collection with multiple columns, this tab allows you to identify the columns within your data as well as provide definitions for them. This allows users to see at a glance what is contained within the CSV files through the metadata and HTML preview, rather than having to open the files individually.

Convert Spreadsheet to an RO-Crate with Crate-O

For steps on adding your spreadsheet data to an RO-Crate using Crate-O, see Append Data from Spreadsheet.