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Open Data Publication

This specification defines how Data Providers publish Open Data within a Scheme using the standard metadata format described in the Data Catalog Records specification, and the requirement for an Scheme level enforcement policy. It ensures that published datasets are openly licensed, publicly accessible, and described with sufficient metadata for inclusion and discovery within the catalog.

Note: This document uses US English. To align with W3C and other prevalent standards, IB1 uses US English in its technical specifications and technical documentation.

RDF Prefixes

This specification uses the following prefixes:

  dcat:    http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#
  dcterms: http://purl.org/dc/terms/
  ib1:     https://registry.trust.ib1.org/ns/1.0#

Dependencies

A Scheme using this specification must also adopt the following specifications:

Licensing

All datasets published under this specification must be licensed using an open license which meets the Open Definition 2.1.

The license must be declared in the dcterms:license field, using the standard, widely recognized URL associated with that license.

Mandatory Metadata Fields

The following fields must be included in each DCAT resource representing a dataset:

dcterms:license
A URL pointing to a license that meets the Open Definition 2.1.
dcterms:publisher
A URL of the Data Provider’s Member record in the Directory. This may be included in addition to any other publishers.
dcterms:conformsTo
If the dataset conforms to a Scheme standard, the URL of the Scheme Catalog Requirements Document. Inclusion of this field may impose additional metadata requirements.
ib1:dataSchema
A URL pointing to a schema that describes the structure of the dataset (e.g., JSON Schema, XSD, or CSVW), unless it is commercially impractical to provide a schema. If the entry has a dcterms:confirmsTo value and this refers to a Scheme Catalog Requirements Document which specifies a schema, the value of this term must match the schema required by the Scheme standard.
ib1:sensitivityClass
Must be set to exactly https://registry.trust.ib1.org/sensitivity-class/IB1-O, indicating Open Data according to the Generic Sensitivity Classes specification.
ib1:trustFramework
The URL of the Trust Framework under which this data is published.
ib1:scheme
The URL of the Scheme governing the publication and use of this dataset.

Any other metadata fields defined as mandatory in the Data Catalog Records specification must also be included.

Enforcement Policy

A Scheme which permits Open Data publication must define an enforcement policy for its rules, including:

  • How violations (e.g., incorrect licensing, misleading metadata) are reported and handled.
  • The process for removing non-compliant data from the catalog.
  • Criteria for auditing data quality and adherence to the Scheme Catalog Requirements.
  • A method to handle disputes or clarifications about licensing or conformance.

This Policy must be published in the Registry, with a ib1:policyPurpose of https://registry.trust.ib1.org/open-data/policy-purpose/OpenDataEnforcement

Example

@prefix dcat: <http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#> .
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix ib1: <https://registry.trust.ib1.org/ns/1.0#> .

<https://data.example.org/emissions-report/2024-01>
    a dcat:Dataset ;
    dcterms:title "Monthly Emissions Report January 2024" ;
    dcterms:description "CO2 emissions data for January 2024 reported by local authorities." ;
    dcterms:publisher <https://directory.core.trust.ib1.org/member/456789> ;
    dcterms:license <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/> ;
    dcterms:conformsTo <https://registry.core.trust.ib1.org/scheme/open-data/standard/emissions-report> ;
    ib1:dataSchema <https://registry.core.trust.ib1.org/scheme/open-data/format/generic-emissions/1.0> ;
    ib1:sensitivityClass <https://registry.trust.ib1.org/sensitivity-class/IB1-O> ;
    ib1:trustFramework <https://registry.core.trust.ib1.org/trust-framework> ;
    ib1:scheme <https://registry.core.trust.ib1.org/scheme/open-data> ;
    dcat:distribution <https://data.example.org/emissions-report/2024-01/csv> ;
.

<https://data.example.org/emissions-report/2024-01/csv>
    a dcat:Distribution ;
    dcterms:description "CSV download of the monthly emissions report" ;
    dcat:downloadURL <https://data.example.org/emissions-report/2024-01.csv> ;
    dcat:mediaType "text/csv" ;
    ib1:dataSchema <https://registry.core.trust.ib1.org/scheme/open-data/format/emissions/1.0> ;
.