Commons:Structured data/Modeling/Author

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Modeling

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	Work in progress – please help!
	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

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

All the examples below rely on creator (P170) property, and they all could use optional object 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 Dietmar Rabich edit 0 references add reference add value
Photograph taken by the Commons user (without customized name)	[[user:Bijay chaurasia|Bijay chaurasia]]	API	creator somevalue edit 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: object has role (P3831) URL (P2699)
Photograph taken by the Commons user (with customized name)	[[user:Jane3030|BerryJ]]	API	creator somevalue edit 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 somevalue edit 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 somevalue edit Wikimedia username sailko 0 references add reference add value digital representation of The Coronation of the Virgin with Six Angels edit 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"	Artist: painter (Q1028181) Lithographer: lithographer (Q16947657)		creator Antoine Maurin (Q12061516) edit object has role painter (Q1028181) 0 references add reference François le Villain (Q21646869) edit object has role lithographer (Q16947657) 0 references add reference add value	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

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 has role (P3831) as a qualifier on each creator (P170).

Case	equivalent to wikitext "author = ..."	Example file	Statement	Comment
Anonymous author	{{Anonymous}} {{Unknown author}}	API	creator somevalue edit object has role anonymous (Q4233718) 0 references add reference add value

General notes and remarks

• Type of contribution as a role object has role (P3831). Example Addresses and travel map of Helsinki from 1876 (Q17610148) > creator (P170) > C. H. Nummelin (Q20830156) > object has role (P3831) > cartographer (Q1734662) Except that this image would be a digital representation of that map, so a better example will be needed.

File types

• author properties for video-files in wikidata, should be roles?: screenwriter (P58), producer (P162), ...
• author properties for audio-files in wikidata, should be roles?: lyrics by (P676), composer (P86), performer (P175)
• author properties for pdf-files in wikidata, should be roles?: author (P50), author of foreword (P2679), editor (P98), illustrator (P110)

Publishers

• publisher: publisher (P123)
• ...

Examples

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

• 
  Example.jpg Example 1 of good data modelling of situation a
• 
  Example.jpg Example 2 of good data modelling of situation b

Related WikiProjects and help pages on Wikidata

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