Introduction

Last updated on 2025-08-04 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 17 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How do I package data in a FAIR way?
  • How does an RO-Crate identify and describe its contents?
  • What is the difference between data entities and context entities?
  • What is the role of JSON-LD in RO-Crate?
  • How can I list the authors of individual files?
  • How can I validate and visualize RO-Crate metadata?

Objectives

  • Construct an RO-Crate by hand using JSON
  • Learn basic JSON-LD to create FAIR metadata
  • Describe each part of the RO-Crate
  • Connect different parts of the RO-Crate using identifiers

Introduction

This tutorial assumes you have already completed An overview of the RO-Crate concept and its implementations:

Video: An overview of the RO-Crate concept and its implementations (see also slides and transcript)

Tutorial walk-through

In this tutorial, meant to be read along with the RO-Crate specification, we’ll walk through the initial steps for creating a basic RO-Crate. You are invited to replicate the below steps on your local computer.

Abbreviations

  • FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable; a set of principles for publishing research data and metadata.
  • FDO: FAIR Digital Object; a set of recommendations to improve findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reproducibility for any digital object.
  • JSON: JavaScript Object Notation, a generic structured text-based data format.
  • JSON-LD: JSON Linked Data, a way to express Linked Data (RDF) using regular JSON.
  • RO-Crate: Research Object Crate; a way to package research data with structured FAIR metadata.
  • PID: Persistent Identifier; a long-lasting reference to a digital object.
  • URI: Uniform Resource Identifier; a string of characters that identifies a resource.

Key Points

  • RO-Crate provides a structure to make FAIR data packages
  • schema.org in JSON-LD provides a controlled vocabulary for FAIR metadata
  • Each entity of the crate is described separately
  • Cross-references between entities create a graph
  • The RO-Crate specification recommends which types and keys to use