4 What’s New in EML 2.2.0
This document highlights changes and new features in EML 2.2. EML authors should also refer to the affected sections in the normative schema documents for complete usage information and examples.
EML 2.2 is backward compatible, i.e., EML 2.0 and 2.1 documents could be relabled as EML 2.2 without violating the schema. However, some predefined values, particularly units, are deprecated in favor of new values to fix mispellings or inconsistencies. EML authors are encouraged to migrate away from deprecated values.
Existing EML 2.1.1 documents can be converted to EML 2.2.0 using the XSL stylesheet that accompanies this release.
See the ‘README.md’ that accompanies the distribution for a complete list of the bugs addressed, and for information of interest to developers.
4.1 Unit Additions and Changes
Many units were added for EML 2.2.0, including units supporting oceanography, climatology, forestry and limnology. The following unit types from the unit dictionary have been renamed to better reflect their dimensionality:
- massFlux is now massRate
- arealMassDensityRate is now massFlux
- amountOfSubstanceWeightFlux is now amountOfSubstanceWeightRate
Dozens of units are now deprecated in favor other units to address issues such as naming consistency. Use the “deprecatedInFavorOf” attribute in eml-unitDictionary.xml to identify deprecated units.
4.2 BibTeX Support
CitationType elements can use the new <bibtex> element as an alternative to encoding citations in the EML XML structures. BibTeX entries generally play well inside of XML structures, but XML escaping is still needed for special characters, so consider embedding BibTeX entries in CDATA blocks if XML escaping becomes cumbersome.
<citation>
<bibtex>
@article{fegraus_2005,
title = {Maximizing the {Value} of {Ecological} {Data} with {Structured} {Metadata}: {An} {Introduction} to {Ecological} {Metadata} {Language} ({EML}) and {Principles} for {Metadata} {Creation}},
journal = {Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America},
author = {Fegraus, Eric H. and Andelman, Sandy and Jones, Matthew B. and Schildhauer, Mark},
year = {2005},
pages = {158--168}
}
</bibtex>
</citation>4.3 Citation Lists
EML 2.2.0 includes a new <literatureCited> element as a CitationListType that represents one or more citations. These citations can be a series of <citation> elements or a <bibtex> element with a list of citations.
Example of <literatureCited> element in EML 2.2.0:
<literatureCited>
<citation>
<bibtex>
@article{fegraus_2005,
title = {Maximizing the {Value} of {Ecological} {Data} with {Structured} {Metadata}: {An} {Introduction} to {Ecological} {Metadata} {Language} ({EML}) and {Principles} for {Metadata} {Creation}},
journal = {Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America},
author = {Fegraus, Eric H. and Andelman, Sandy and Jones, Matthew B. and Schildhauer, Mark},
year = {2005},
pages = {158--168}
}
</bibtex>
</citation>
<citation>
<title>Title of a paper that this dataset, or its metadata, references.</title>
<creator>
<individualName>
<givenName>Mark</givenName>
<surName>Jarkady</surName>
</individualName>
</creator>
<pubDate>2017</pubDate>
<article>
<journal>EcoSphere</journal>
<publicationPlace>https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2166</publicationPlace>
</article>
</citation>
<bibtex>
@article{hampton_2017,
title = {Skills and {Knowledge} for {Data}-{Intensive} {Environmental} {Research}},
volume = {67},
copyright = {All rights reserved},
issn = {0006-3568, 1525-3244},
url = {https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/biosci/bix025},
doi = {10.1093/biosci/bix025},
language = {en},
number = {6},
urldate = {2018-02-15},
journal = {BioScience},
author = {Hampton, Stephanie E. and Jones, Matthew B. and Wasser, Leah A. and Schildhauer, Mark P. and Supp, Sarah R. and Brun, Julien and Hernandez, Rebecca R. and Boettiger, Carl and Collins, Scott L. and Gross, Louis J. and Fernández, Denny S. and Budden, Amber and White, Ethan P. and Teal, Tracy K. and Labou, Stephanie G. and Aukema, Juliann E.},
month = jun,
year = {2017},
pages = {546--557}
}
@article{collins_2018,
title = {Temporal heterogeneity increases with spatial heterogeneity in ecological communities},
volume = {99},
copyright = {All rights reserved},
issn = {00129658},
url = {http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/ecy.2154},
doi = {10.1002/ecy.2154},
language = {en},
number = {4},
urldate = {2018-04-16},
journal = {Ecology},
author = {Collins, Scott L. and Avolio, Meghan L. and Gries, Corinna and Hallett, Lauren M. and Koerner, Sally E. and La Pierre, Kimberly J. and Rypel, Andrew L. and Sokol, Eric R. and Fey, Samuel B. and Flynn, Dan F. B. and Jones, Sydney K. and Ladwig, Laura M. and Ripplinger, Julie and Jones, Matt B.},
month = apr,
year = {2018},
pages = {858--865}
}
</bibtex>
</literatureCited>4.4 Markdown Support
TextType elements can include GitHub Flavored Markdown using the new <markdown> element. See the description for the <markdown> element in eml-text.xsd for more details on embedded images, inline citations, and formatting considerations regarding special characters and indentation.
Example of markdown in EML 2.2.0:
<markdown>
An introduction goes here.
It can include multiple paragraphs. And these paragraphs should have enough text to wrap in a wide browser. So, repeat that last thought. And these paragraphs should have enough text to wrap in a wide browser. So, repeat that last thought.
Text can cite other works, such as [@jones_2001], in which case the
associated key must be present as either the citation identifier in a
`bibtex` element in the EML document, or as the `id` attribute on one of the
`citation` elements in the EML document. These identifiers must be unique
across the document.
And bulleted lists are also supported:
- Science
- Engineering
- Math
It can also include equations:
$$\left( x + a \right)^{n} = \sum_{k = 0}^{n}{\left( \frac{n}{k} \right)x^{k}a^{n - k}}$$
Plus, it can include all of the other features of [Github Flavored Markdown (GFM)](https://github.github.com/gfm/).
</markdown>4.5 Usage Citations
EML 2.2.0 documents can include a non-comprehensive list of citations in which the data were explicitly used via a <usageCitation> element, which is a CitationType.
Example usageCitation element:
<dataset>
...
<usageCitation>
<bibtex>
@article{jones_2001,
title = {Managing scientific metadata},
volume = {5},
issn = {10897801},
url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/lpdocs/epic03/wrapper.htm?arnumber=957896},
doi = {10.1109/4236.957896},
number = {5},
journal = {IEEE Internet Computing},
author = {Jones, Matthew B. and Berkley, Chad and Bojilova, Jivka and Schildhauer, Mark},
year = {2001},
pages = {59--68}
}
</bibtex>
</usageCitation>
...
</dataset>4.6 Reference Publications
For cases when a research paper or data paper illustrates the usage of a dataset, the new <referencePublication> element can be used to associate the dataset with the publication.
<dataset>
...
<referencePublication>
<bibtex>
@article{ludwig_2018,
title = {Permafrost carbon and nitrogen, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska},
url = {http://ecosphere.esa.org/article/yyyy.zzzzzzz},
doi = {10.xxxx/yyyy.zzzzzz},
journal = {EcoSphere},
author = {Ludwig, Sarah},
year = {2018}
}
</bibtex>
</referencePublication>
...
</dataset>4.7 Data Paper Support
ESA and other societies are moving towards the publication of data papers that include more complete narratives about a data set and its importance and use. To support data papers, EML 2.2.0 includes new optional fields for Introduction, Getting Started, and Acknowledgements, as well as markdown and citation-related elements described elsewhere in this document.
4.8 Dataset license
Datasets can now include a <licensed> element along with a URL to a license. The URLs are best provided using the SPDX license vocabulary for consistency, but other license URIs are allowed.
4.9 Structured Funding Information
EML 2.2.0 sees the addition of an <award> element to support
structured funding information for a research project. This is used as an
alternative or in addition to the <funding> element which is a text type.
Generally a textual description of funding sources would go into <funding>, while
structured names and identifiers for the funding agency and award would go into the
<award> element.
<project>
...
<funding><para>Funding is from a grant from the National Science Foundation.</para></funding>
<award>
<funderName>National Science Foundation</funderName>
<funderIdentifier>https://doi.org/10.13039/00000001</funderIdentifier>
<awardNumber>1546024</awardNumber>
<title>Scientia Arctica: A Knowledge Archive for Discovery and Reproducible Science in the Arctic</title>
<awardUrl>https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1546024</awardUrl>
</award>
</project>4.10 “unkown” deprecated as element value
Some EML documents have specified “unkown” instead of “unknown” for the
<maintenanceUpdateFrequency> because there is a typo in the list of allowed values
in eml-dataset.xsd. For EML 2.2.0, a value of unknown is added to the list,
while the the original value of unkown is kept in the enumeration for
backwards compatibility with a note that its use is deprecated.
4.11 access elements deprecated
While eml-access has been part of the standard for many years, use has been
extremely limited, and most systems seem to omit and ignore the access elements
in the document in favor of using repository-specific mechanisms to control access.
Therefore, EML 2.2.0 deprecates use of the access elements in the main body of EML
documents, with the exception of use within the additionalMetadata element. As this is a
backwards incompatible change, the elements are still available in EML 2.2.0, but users
should expect schema changes to occur in a future release that eliminate the use of access
elements outside of additionalMetadata. In addition, because authorization systems
are system-dependent, the content within any access element should be considered
advisory and may not reflect the actual authorization policies in place at a given point
in time in a given repository.
4.12 Supporting Semantic Metadata
See the EML Semantic Annotation Primer
for a thorough overview. In brief, EML 2.2.0 supports entering terms from an
ontology via <annotation> elements to precisely describe items such as data
attributes/variables, datasets, and people. Annotations are allowed in five
locations in the EML document:
- in
attribute,entity, anddataset(or other resource) elements - in an
/eml/annotationsroot element - in
/eml/additionalMetadata
When the annotation is embedded in a containing EML attribute element, the
annotation’s subject is that attribute:
<attribute id="att.12">
<attributeName>biomass</attributeName>
...
<annotation>
<propertyURI label="of characteristic">http://ecoinformatics.org/oboe/oboe.1.2/oboe-core.owl#ofCharacteristic</propertyURI>
<valueURI label="Mass">http://ecoinformatics.org/oboe/oboe.1.2/oboe-characteristics.owl#Mass</valueURI>
</annotation>
<annotation>
<propertyURI label="of entity">http://ecoinformatics.org/oboe/oboe.1.2/oboe-core.owl#ofEntity</propertyURI>
<valueURI label="Plant Sample">http://example.com/example-vocab-1.owl#PlantSample</valueURI>
</annotation>
</attribute>For annotations in /eml/annotations, the subject of the annotation is
established using a references attribute that points at the id of the subject of
the annotation:
<annotations>
<annotation references="CDR-biodiv-table">
<propertyURI label="Subject">http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/subject</propertyURI>
<valueURI label="grassland biome">http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_01000177</valueURI>
</annotation>
</annotations>For annotations in /eml/additionalMetadata, the subject is the element with
the id listed within the associated <describes> element:
4.13 Support for ids in taxonomicClassification
taxonomicClassification elements can now include a reference to
external identifiers, e.g., to a code from a system like ITIS or WoRMS.
<taxonomicClassification id="taxon_MAPY">
<taxonRankName>species</taxonRankName>
<taxonRankValue>Macrocystis pyrifera</taxonRankValue>
<commonName>Giant Kelp</commonName>
<taxonId provider="ITIS">11274</taxonId>
<taxonId provider="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/taxonomy">35122</taxonId>
</taxonomicClassification>4.14 How can I convert from earlier versions of EML?
An XSL stylesheet is provided with the EML Utilities to convert valid EML 2.1-series documents to EML 2.2.0 (see http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/software/eml/). The stylesheet performs basic tasks to create a template EML 2.2.0 document. For more information, see the Utilities documentation.
4.15 Validity of new EML 2.2.0 documents
EML instance documents can be validated in these ways:
Using the command-line validator that comes with EML. To execute it, from the top-level directory of the EML release, run the
./bin/validate.shscript passing your EML document filepath as a parameter. The script performs two actions: it checks the validity of references and id attributes, and it validates the document against the EML 2.2 schema.Within R, use the
EML::validate()function.If you are planning to contribute your EML 2.2.0 document to a Metacat repository, note that the Metacat servlet checks all versions of incoming EML for validity as part of the insertion process.