Name

Meaning and purpose

A name is a human-readable identifying label for an activity, collection, party or service. This includes titles of collections.
The kind of name (name type) is described by choosing from the following:

• primary: official name of the person or group
• abbreviated: shortened form of, or acronym for, the official name
• alternative: any other form of name used now or in the past as a substitute or alternative for the official name

Names for people should be described by recording each name component in a separate name part. The kind of name part (name part type) is described by choosing from the following :

For people

• title: word or phrase indicative of rank, office, nobility, honour, etc., or a term of address associated with a person
• given: forenames, given names, personal names and initials
• family: last name or surname (including compound names)
  
• suffix: honours, awards, or qualifications conferred

For groups (organisations)

• superior: part of a name that describes a party (group) that contains one or more integral subordinate parties (sub-groups or sub-units).
  
• subordinate: part of a name that describes a party (group) that is an integral sub-group or sub-unit of a superior party (group).

Research domain examples

A person may have a title and awards; for example, Professor Elizabeth Blackburn AC.

An organisation may have a primary name (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and an abbreviated name (CSIRO).

A collection or dataset will have a name (or title); for example, Social maps of healthy eating campaigns in Australia with media analysis, quantitative and experimental results.

An activity such as a project will have a name (or title); for example, the Resilience of Moreton Bay to climate change: Links between nutrient inputs and plankton dynamics project.

A service will have a name; for example, the Minerals Down Under Portal or the GSV Seamless Geology Web Map Service.

Additional information

The language in which the name is recorded can be described using <xml:lang>.
A date range during which the name was current can be recorded using Date from and Date to.

Use in Research Data Australia

Name parts are displayed in Research Data Australia and are searchable. A length limit of 80 characters (including spaces) is recommended for compatibility with discovery services, which will often truncate names or collection titles longer than this.

RIF-CS best practice guidelines

How to enter a name

This process applies to all names, whether for an activity, a collection, a party or a service.

• Select a name type (whether the name to be described is the primary, alternative or abbreviated name). Abbreviated names are common for organisations e.g. CSIRO.
  
• Optionally, record the language in which the name is recorded.
• Use a name part element to record the name. To split a personal name into its component parts use multiple name parts within a single name element. To record an organisation name that contains two levels, use multiple name parts within a single name element.
  

Name Type

Name type is always required, whether an activity, collection, party or service is being described.

There should only be one primary name (names of type="primary") but it can be encoded in multiple language statements. To record versions of an official name in multiple languages, use multiple instances of name with type set to "primary" and in each statement associate the value string with the appropriate language using <xml:lang>.

Name Part

• Name parts must always be used to record names; the Name element is a wrapper only. All names are stored within the Name part element, not within the <name> wrapper element.
• A name can be represented by either a single Name part (as is usually the case for an organisation or group) or may be split into parts using multiple Name part elements (for example for title, first name, surname, suffix).
• Splitting a personal name up into its constituent parts (such as family and given names) is required.
• When multiple name parts are used, include them within a single name element to ensure correct display in Research Data Australia.

Name Part Type

• Name part types are used to distinguish between the multiple namePart instances that together make up a name so that they can be displayed correctly in Research Data Australia.

Collection titles (names of collections)

• Collection titles should be as descriptive as possible so that they are meaningful to researchers from other disciplines and in the future. Keywords included in the title are important in discovery by search engines.
• 'Respiration Data' or 'The Aerostar 100 Data Set' are titles that do not uniquely and comprehensively describe their objects. 'SAFARI 2000 Upper Air Meteorological Profiles, Skukuza, Dry Seasons 1999-2000' is a better title.
• The nature of the data and other information such as the location and date range are useful in the title, particularly if they are not recorded elsewhere in specific metadata fields for spatial and temporal coverage.
• Collection titles should be unique and generally should not use acronyms that would be a barrier to understanding outside a discipline. If acronyms are important for discovery, include an alternative title with acronyms spelled out.
  

Personal names

Personal names should be recorded using name part elements for each of title, family name(s), given name(s) and initial(s), and suffix (any award(s) and honours).

• Name parts containing a family names (of type= "family") should not be repeated. Include all the family names for a person in a single name part, including any compound family names.
  
• Name parts containing given names (of type= "given") should not be repeated. Include all the given names and initials for a person as a string in a single name part, leaving spaces between each name and initial.
  
• Name parts containing honours and awards (of type="suffix") should not be repeated. Include all honours and awards as a string in a single name part, leaving spaces between values.

Group names

• Inclusion of acronyms and abbreviations is recommended to support searching.
• Name parts for organisations allow better display of names that have an inherent structure or hierarchy, for example, Monash University Faculty of Law.
  

RIF-CS examples

Example of a personal name split into constituent elements (note that compound names should not be split):

<party type="person">
    <name type="primary">
        <namePart type="title">Dr</namePart>
        <namePart type="family">Kincaid-Smith</namePart>
        <namePart type="given">Priscilla S</namePart>
        <namePart type="suffix">AC CBE</namePart>
    </name>

    <name type="alternative">
        <namePart type="family">Fairley</namePart>
        <namePart type="given">Priscilla Sheath</namePart>
    </name>
</party>


Example of a group name showing both primary and abbreviated names:

<party type="group">
    <name type="primary">
        <namePart>Australian Research Council</namePart>
    </name>
    
    <name type="abbreviated">
        <namePart>ARC</namePart>
    </name>
</party>

Example of a group name containing superior and subordinate parts:

<party type="group">
    <identifier type="AU-ANL:PEAU">http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-627797</identifier>
    <name type="primary">
        <namePart type="superior">Budawang University</namePart>
        <namePart type="subordinate">Division of Environmental Mechanics</namePart>
    </name>   
</party>

 

Date	Change history
April 2010	Consultation draft
26 Oct 2010	Changed rules for splitting personal names to align with ARDC People Infrastructure Project
15 April 2011	Corrected to state that nameParts are searchable
23 Sept 2011	Clarification of advice on splitting personal names, information about future name parts for organisations
27 Sept 2011	Clarification of advice on including acronyms in names
21 Nov 2011	Information about RIF-CS v1.3.0 name part types for groups added

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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