Commons:Structured data/Modeling/Author

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You can help by working on guidelines and providing examples below. Visit the talk page to discuss this process in general.

Modeling of various types of authorship in structured data, for files on Wikimedia Commons is mostly done through creator (P170) property and its qualifiers, and follows the similar norms as use of the same properties on Wikidata. Similar author (P50) property is less useful on as it only applied to authors of written works.

Distinction between a digital file, and a creative work shown/depicted in a file

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When a file on Wikimedia Commons shows/depicts a creative work, authorship information about the file and about the depicted work are usually very different. For example, in case of a photograph of an artwork the best solution would be to describe the artwork as an item on Wikidata to keep this distinction clear. That way all the metadata related to the artwork, like artist's name, institution holding the artwork , copyright status of the artwork would be held on Wikidata. Consequently we might have multiple photographs of the artwork from various photographers, each done at different time and released under different license and such photograph metadata should be kept in structured data on Commons, each with digital representation of (P6243) property linking it with Wikidata.

There might be artworks or other creative works that do not meet Wikidata's notability criteria, or more specifically it is not notable enough to have a Wikipedia article about it, nor can it be described using serious and publicly available references. In such cases, metadata about both the artwork and the photograph might need to be stored on Commons.

In some cases, digitization might be a fully mechanical process without any creative input, for example in case of scanning a photograph. In such a case, scanning should be still mentioned in the source information but the name of the person running the scanner could be omitted from the list of creators.

Modelling various styles of storing author information

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All the examples below rely on creator (P170) property, and they all could use optional object of statement has role (P3831) qualifier to specify authors role in the creation process. P3831 qualifier is especially useful in case files listing multiple creators.

Case equivalent to wikitext
"author = ..."
Example file Statement Comment
Photograph taken by person with Wikidata item {{Label|Q34788025|link=wikidata}}
API
creator
Normal rank Dietmar Rabich
0 references
add reference


add value
Photograph taken by the Commons user
(without customized name)
[[user:Bijay chaurasia|Bijay chaurasia]]
API
creator
Normal rank somevalue
Wikimedia username Bijay chaurasia
0 references
add reference


add value
If photograph was taken by the Commons user than we need to provide the username of the photographer, and the name they prefer to use, if any. Optional qualifiers can include:
Photograph taken by the Commons user
(with customized name)
[[user:Jane3030|BerryJ]]
API
creator
Normal rank somevalue
Wikimedia username Jane3030
author name string BerryJ
0 references
add reference


add value
Photograph taken by the external user [https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/11 Andy Stephenson]
API
creator
Normal rank somevalue
URL https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/11
author name string Andy Stephenson
0 references
add reference


add value
Photograph taken by the Commons user of an artwork [[user:sailko|sailko]]
API
creator
Normal rank somevalue
Wikimedia username sailko
0 references
add reference


add value
digital representation of
Normal rank The Coronation of the Virgin with Six Angels
0 references
add reference


add value
Use digital representation of (P6243) property to link the photograph to the photographed work. Wikidata item The Coronation of the Virgin with Six Angels (Q20173309) will have its own creator (P170) property indicating authorship of the photographed work.
Separate author and "executor"
  • The artist sometimes credited with: "del." (for "delineavit"); "inv." ("invenit"); "pinx." ("pinxit")
  • The engraver or lithographer: "sc.", "sculpt." (for "sculpsit"), "lith.", "eng.", etc.
(other cases still under discussion)

Anonymous and "unknown" authors

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Often, authors of images are unknown, or the work is acknowledged as anonymous.

Sometimes, the author of the artwork is known, but certain persons involved in the creation of the image instance (e.g. an engraver) are not, in which case use object of statement has role (P3831) as a qualifier on each creator (P170).

Case equivalent to wikitext
"author = ..."
Example file Statement Comment
Anonymous author
API
creator
Normal rank somevalue
object of statement has role anonymous (Q4233718)
0 references
add reference


add value

General notes and remarks

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File types

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Publishers

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Examples

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(list files below that provide best practices on how to model various situations)

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