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<role> Role or Function Title of Contributor

Title or role of a contributor to a work (for example, author, principle investigator, illustrator, research associate, conceptualization).

Usage/Remarks

The role of a contributor may be relative to acquiring the data, performing the research, writing the paper, data visualization, or even an organizational or supervisional role. As an enabling standard, JATS is agnostic on this point, and a publisher, archive, aggregator, or other JATS user may identify <role> elements for contributors as they choose.
The content of a <role> element may be: the name of a role (possibly recorded as natural language text), a CRediT taxonomic term, a term from a non-CRediT taxonomy, the translation of a CRediT or other term into another language, a CRediT term with “free-text qualifiers”, etc.
What Elements Can Hold Roles
In JATS, roles may be recorded for primary contributors (<contrib>, <contrib-group>, or <collab>), inside bibliographic citations for cited contributors (<element-citation>, <mixed-citation>, or <person-group>), inside a signature block (<sig-block>), or inside the descriptions of referenced materials (<product>, <related-article>, or <related-object>). If a single contributor played more than one role in the creation of an article, the <role> element may be repeated, typically with different vocabulary attributes or a different @content-type attribute for each <role>.
How to Name Contributor Roles
JATS contains two very different methods for naming the type of contribution made by an individual (also known as the role of a contributor):
  • the @contrib-type attribute (non-repeating) placed on the <contrib> element, and
  • the <role> element, which can be used within the <contrib> element (to describe the role of an individual contributor) or within the <contrib-group> (to indicate more than one contributor acting in the same role).
Historically (in JATS predecessor NLM DTD) the @contrib-type attribute was considered to be metadata for grouping authors or editors, etc. and the <role> element was the more likely to be used for screen or print display. For example, the <contrib> element’s @contrib-type attribute might have a value of “editor”, whereas the content of the <role> element could be “Associate Editor”. As another example, the <contrib> element’s @contrib-type attribute might be “author”, and the <role> element might contain “Principal Author”.
Why Use <role>
More recently, in an effort to reflect more accurately the differing contributions of the many people involved in the writing of an article or the research behind the article, publishing practices have changed to be more specific about the roles of contributors. A single @contrib-type attribute value was not considered sufficient to describe a person’s full contributions, although @contrib-type may still be used for informal grouping, with a value such as “authors”.
The <role> element is now used both for machine-processable contributor details and for display because:
  • The <role> element can repeat, so one contributor can be credited with playing more than one role in the creation of an article.
  • The four JATS vocabulary attributes can tie the content of a <role> element to an ontology or taxonomy, such as the NISO CRediT, Contributor Roles Taxonomy.
  • The <role> element has also proven useful to describe people in organizational roles or publication-specific roles that are not directly related to the article or the research behind the article (such as “Editor-in-Chief”).
Role Attributes Record Taxonomy
If the content of the <role> element is a term from a controlled vocabulary (ontology, taxonomy, term-list, vocabulary, industry glossary, or other known source), the vocabulary attributes should be used to record that source. This source is typically a formal ontology or taxonomy such as NISO CRediT, Contributor Roles Taxonomy. Four attributes can be used in this Tag Set to identify a term from such a controlled vocabulary:
vocab
Name of the controlled or uncontrolled vocabulary, taxonomy, ontology, index, database, or similar that is the source of the term. For example, for a role, a value might be the CRediT taxonomy (“credit”) or MESH Headings (“mesh”). For an uncontrolled term, the value might be merely the word “uncontrolled”.
vocab-identifier
Unique identifier of the vocabulary, such as (but not limited to) a URI or DOI. For example, for Dublin Core (DCC), the identifier may be http://dublincore.org/documents/2012/06/14/dces/. For the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy, the identifier may be http://credit.niso.org/.
vocab-term
The content of the element is the display version of the vocabulary or taxonomic term. The @vocab-term attribute holds the canonical version of the same term, as it appears in the vocabulary. For example, if the attribute value was “Writing — original draft”, the element might contain the display text “Author”.
Character Caution: Characters such as Ndash are used in the canonical CRediT names, and they may also be used in the content of the <role> element. But General Entities (such as &ndash;) should not be used in the value of this attribute; inside the @vocab-term value, use the Unicode character reference “—” for an Ndash.
vocab-term-identifier
Unique identifier of the term within a specific vocabulary, such as (but not limited to) an item number, an accession number, a URI, a DOI, etc.

Taxonomic Term Best Practice

The NISO CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) terms are complex phrases such as:
Conceptualization
Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims
Data curation
Management activities to annotate data [produce metadata], scrub data, and maintain research data
Writing — original draft
Creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft
CRediT terms are typically recorded using the JATS vocabulary attributes.
The <role> element takes the @content-type attribute, which is designed to accept any text as its value, and so could hold a CRediT term. However, Best Practice is to tag the CRediT terms using the vocabulary attributes to make the connection to CRediT, rather than @content-type. The content of the <role> element may echo the CRediT term, or be any local text, but the @vocab-term attribute should hold the canonical CRediT term, with the other vocabulary attributes pointing to the CRediT taxonomy.
The @content-type on <role> can be used for non-vocabulary-based values such as “photographer” or “deep sea diver”.
Related Elements
On Behalf Of: This element joins the related element <on-behalf-of> in describing the contribution of a contributor. The <role> element will say that a person is an “Editor” or “Associate Editor”, and the <on-behalf-of> element will state that this editing was undertaken as a representative of a group or organization.
See discussion under Remarks in <on-behalf-of>.
Attributes
assigning-authority
content-type
degree-contribution
specific-use
vocab
vocab-identifier
vocab-term
vocab-term-identifier

Base Attributes

id
xml:base
xml:lang
Models and Context
May be contained in
<collab>, <contrib>, <contrib-group>, <element-citation>, <mixed-citation>, <person-group>, <product>, <related-article>, <related-object>
Description
Any combination of:
Content Model
<!ELEMENT  role         (#PCDATA %role-elements;)*                   >
Expanded Content Model

(#PCDATA | bold | fixed-case | italic | monospace | overline | roman | sans-serif | sc | strike | underline | ruby | sub | sup | named-content | styled-content)*

Tagged Samples
Free-style contributor roles 
...  
<contrib-group content-type="conference-editors">
 <contrib contrib-type="editor">
  <name name-style="western">
   <surname>Herrera</surname>
   <given-names>Gerardo</given-names>
  </name>
  <role>Conference Editor</role>
 </contrib>
</contrib-group>
...
...
<contrib-group>
 <contrib contrib-type="author">
  <name name-style="western">
   <surname>Foster</surname>
   <given-names>Bill</given-names>
   <prefix>Rep.</prefix>
  </name>
  <role>(IL-14)</role>
 </contrib>
</contrib-group>
...
...
<article-meta>
 <article-id pub-id-type="pmid">...</article-id>
 <title-group>...</title-group>
 <contrib-group>
  <contrib contrib-type="author">
   <name><surname>Forster</surname>
    <given-names>Anne Williams</given-names></name>
   <role>research physiotherapist</role>
   <xref ref-type="aff" rid="StLukes"/>
   <xref ref-type="aff" rid="RoyalInf"/>
  </contrib>
  <contrib contrib-type="author">
   <name><surname>Young</surname>
    <given-names>John G.</given-names></name>
   <role>consultant physician</role>
   <xref ref-type="aff" rid="RoyalInf"/>
  </contrib>
 </contrib-group>
 <aff id="StLukes">Department of Health Care
  for the Elderly, St Luke&#x2019;s Hospital, Bradford BD5
  0NA</aff>
 <aff id="RoyalInf">Academic Section
  of Geriatric Medicine, Royal Infirmary, Glasgow
  G4 0SF</aff>
 <pub-date publication-format="print" date-type="pub" iso-8601-date="1999-03-27">
  ...</pub-date>
 ...
</article-meta>
...
Contributor roles with CRediT terms 
...
<contrib-group>
 <contrib>
  <string-name><given-names>Barbara</given-names> <surname>Johnston</surname></string-name>
  <role vocab="CRediT" 
    vocab-identifier="http://credit.niso.org/"
    vocab-term="Conceptualization"
    vocab-term-identifier=
    "http://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/conceptualization/"
    degree-contribution="lead">study designer</role>
 </contrib>
 <contrib>
  <string-name><given-names>Brooke</given-names> <surname>Jackson</surname></string-name>
  <role vocab="CRediT" 
    vocab-identifier="http://credit.niso.org/"
    vocab-term="Writing &#8212; original draft"
    vocab-term-identifier=
    "http://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/writing-original-draft/"
    degree-contribution="lead">writer</role>
 </contrib>
</contrib-group>
...
CRediT terms with ampersand/ndash
Special characters in CRediT attribute values need to be supplied as Unicode character references. In narrative text, the same special characters may be expressed as Unicode character references, general entities, or keyboard characters. 
...
<contrib-group>
 <contrib>
  <string-name><given-names>Anne</given-names> <surname>Berns</surname></string-name>
  <role vocab="CRediT" 
    vocab-identifier="http://credit.niso.org/"
    vocab-term="Writing &#8212; original draft"
    vocab-term-identifier=
    "http://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/writing-original-draft/"
    degree-contribution="lead">Article Author &ndash; Original Draft</role>
 </contrib>
</contrib-group>
...
In citations
Mixed citation
...
<ref>
 <mixed-citation>
  <string-name><surname>Johnson</surname>,
  <given-names>D. H.</given-names></string-name>,
  <string-name><surname>O&rsquo;Neil</surname>,
  <given-names>T. A.</given-names></string-name>,
  <role>managing directors</role>. <source>Wildlife 
  habitat relationships in Oregon and Washington</source>.
  <publisher-loc>Corvallis, Oregon, USA</publisher-loc>:
  <publisher-name>Oregon State University Press</publisher-name>;
  <year iso-8601-date="2001">2001</year>.
 </mixed-citation>
</ref>
...
Element citation
...
<ref>
 <element-citation>
  <person-group person-group-type="director">
   <name><surname>Johnson</surname>
    <given-names>D. H.</given-names></name>
   <name><surname>O&rsquo;Neil</surname>
    <given-names>T. A.</given-names></name>
  </person-group>
  <role>managing directors</role>
  <source>Wildlife habitat relationships in Oregon
   and Washington</source>
  <publisher-loc>Corvallis, Oregon, USA</publisher-loc>
  <publisher-name>Oregon State University Press</publisher-name>
  <year iso-8601-date="2001">2001</year>
 </element-citation>
</ref>
...
For language-required gender disambiguation 
...
<contrib>
  <name>
     <surname>St-Pierre</surname>
     <given-names>Josée</given-names>
  </name>
  <role>codirectrice</role> 
</contrib>

<contrib>
  <name>
     <surname>Bastin</surname>
     <given-names>Georges L.</given-names>
  </name>
  <role>codirecteur</role>
</contrib>...