RIF-CS
{{Short description|XML vocabulary}}
The Registry Interchange Format - Collections and Services (RIF-CS) is an XML vocabulary for representing metadata about data collections and related entities based on ISO 2146.Global Registries, [http://www.globalregistries.org/rifcs.html "The Registry Interchange Format - Collections and Services (RIF-CS)"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113003315/http://globalregistries.org/rifcs.html |date=2013-01-13 }}, Retrieved on 4 January 2013.
It is a machine-readable format to describe metadata about data collections. Similar to how MARC standards are used by library systems to describe books, RIF-CS is used to describe data collections.
For example, a RIF-CS record can describe a spreadsheet containing experimental results: it might contain the title, description, creator, keywords, date the experiment was conducted and a URL to obtain the actual spreadsheet. Another RIF-CS record can describe the person who created the spreadsheet: it might contain their name, address and contact email.
RIF-CS documents, containing RIF-CS records, are exchanged between computer systems. For example, a university can send the RIF-CS documents to a national database, where it can be indexed and searched. People can download RIF-CS records from a national database to use the information to find out more about the data and/or the researcher.
Model
The metadata describes the entity as well relationships between the entities. RIF-CS represents metadata about the following types of entities, which it calls registry objects:Australian National Data Service, [http://www.ands.org.au/training/rif-cs/index.html "Learn about RIF-CS"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410220004/http://www.ands.org.au/training/rif-cs/index.html |date=2013-04-10 }}, Retrieved on 4 January 2013.
- Collections
- Parties
- Activities
- Services
These entities are based on the entities defined in ISO 2146.ISO, [http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=44936 "ISO 2146:2010 Information and documentation - Registry services for libraries and related organizations"].
The registry objects contain either embedded information or links to other registry objects. Some information is represented directly in the registry object; for example: names, descriptions and dates. Other information is represented by a link to another registry object: for example, the creator for a collection (research data) is a link to another registry object that describes the party (a researcher).
Use
RIF-CS is used in Australian universities and industry as a format for submitting metadata to the Australian National Data Service (ANDS) Research Data Australia service.Australian National Data Service, [http://researchdata.ands.org.au "Research Data Australia"].
In that context, collections represent collections of research data; parties represent people and groups; activities represent research projects or programs; services represent ways to access the research data collections.
RIF-CS is only a representation of the metadata. To exchange RIF-CS a protocol, such as OAI-PMH, is used.
Example
This example RIF-CS document contains a collection record and a party record.