DataCite 4.6 — JSON‑LD Profile, Schema & Crosswalks

What’s new in 4.6

Resource Types

resourceTypeGeneral adds Project, Award.

Identifier Types

relatedIdentifierType adds RRID, CSTR.

People & Relations

contributorType adds Translator; relation pair IsTranslationOf / HasTranslation.

Dates

dateType adds Coverage.

Main files

Profile (submit)

Strict validator for client submissions. Bundles rules, controlled lists, and the JSON‑LD @context.

datacite4.6-profile.json

SKOS / JSKOS Crosswalks

Quick start

Validate a submission

pip install jsonschema

from jsonschema import Draft7Validator
import json
schema = json.load(open("docs/datacite4.6-profile.json"))
payload = json.load(open("example-submit.json"))
Draft7Validator(schema).validate(payload)
print("OK")

Minimal submission JSON

{
  "doi": "10.1234/example-doi",
  "creators": [{ "name": "Doe, Jane", "nameType": "Personal" }],
  "titles": [{ "title": "An Example Dataset" }],
  "publisher": { "name": "Example University" },
  "publicationYear": "2025",
  "types": { "resourceTypeGeneral": "Dataset" }
}

Validate a response

doc = json.load(open("docs/datacite4.6-profile.json"))
resp = json.load(open("datacite_example_filledin.json"))
Draft7Validator(doc["responseProfile"]).validate(resp)

Tip: The profile allows ORCID dashed or URI and enforces URI when scheme is ROR.

Learn the basics

Glossary

JSON Schema — describes the shape of JSON.
JSON‑LD — links JSON keys to IRIs via @context.
SKOS / JSKOS — controlled vocabularies & mappings.
Crosswalk — alignment between DataCite, Schema.org, DCAT, etc.

What maps to what?

publisher → datacite:publisher (and often schema:publisher)

doi → datacite:identifier (IRI)

DataCite 4.6 — JSON‑LD Profile & JSON Schema