Concept Scheme Profile

Resources:

• Structured JSON schema

• Implementation guide

• SHACL rules

• JSON-LD framing

• Example instance files

• Graphical view

A CDIF Concept Scheme is a controlled vocabulary or terminology represented as a SKOS ConceptScheme in JSON-LD. It uses the same SKOS building blocks as the Codelist profile, but skos:Concept has broader usage here: a concept can represent a possible value for a categorical variable, or an entity or property in a data model. Where the Codelist profile expects a simple, often flat list of coded values, the Concept Scheme profile accommodates richer terminologies with definitions, sources, and hierarchy.

All property names use namespace prefixes declared in the @context:

"@context": {
  "skos": "http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#",
  "schema": "http://schema.org/",
  "dcterms": "http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
}

Graphical presentation of Concept Scheme Profile

skos:ConceptScheme¶

The root object representing the concept scheme, typed as skos:ConceptScheme. It carries the scheme-level descriptive properties together with the mandatory CDIF Core metadata (see the Codelist profile for the full required-property set).

@id¶

• Cardinality: mandatory

• JSON: "@id": "{URI}"

• Description: Globally unique, resolvable URI for the concept scheme.

@type¶

• Cardinality: mandatory

• JSON: "@type": ["skos:ConceptScheme"]

• Description: Must include skos:ConceptScheme.

skos:prefLabel¶

• Cardinality: mandatory

• JSON: "skos:prefLabel": "{string}" or an array of LanguageTaggedValue

• Description: Preferred human-readable label that identifies the scheme. At most one per language.

skos:definition¶

• Cardinality: mandatory

• JSON: "skos:definition": "{string}"

• Description: An unambiguous statement of the meaning or purpose of the scheme.

dcterms:source¶

• Cardinality: mandatory

• JSON: "dcterms:source": "{string or URI}"

• Description: The authority for the origin of the scheme’s definitions.

skos:Concept¶

A skos:Concept within the scheme. In the Concept Scheme profile a concept may represent a possible value for a categorical variable, or an entity or property in a data model. skos:prefLabel, a skos:definition, and a source citation are required; skos:notation is optional and used identically to the Codelist profile. The requirements for each concept in the RDF implementation:

@type¶

• Cardinality: mandatory

• JSON: "@type": ["skos:Concept"]

• Description: Must include skos:Concept.

schema:identifier¶

• Cardinality: mandatory

• JSON: "@id": "{URI}" or "schema:identifier": "{string}" (see PropertyValue)

• Description: Each concept must have a globally unique, resolvable identifier.

skos:inScheme¶

• Cardinality: mandatory

• JSON: "skos:inScheme": {"@id": "{scheme URI}"}

• Description: Object reference to the containing skos:ConceptScheme.

skos:prefLabel¶

• Cardinality: mandatory, repeatable

• JSON: "skos:prefLabel": "{string}" or an array of LanguageTaggedValue

• Description: At least one preferred label; multiples are allowed but only one per language-locale (SKOS does not permit more than one skos:prefLabel per language).

skos:definition¶

• Cardinality: mandatory

• JSON: "skos:definition": "{string}" or LanguageTaggedValue

• Description: A definition of the concept, also in language-specific form.

skos:broader / skos:narrower¶

• Cardinality: required for hierarchy (see Description)

• JSON: "skos:broader": [{"@id": "{parent URI}"}]

• Description: If the scheme is hierarchical, use skos:broader to indicate a concept’s parent. skos:narrower (the inverse) can also be provided, supporting navigation both up and down the hierarchy. See Bidirectional hierarchy.

skos:notation¶

• Cardinality: optional

• JSON: "skos:notation": ["{code}"]

• Description: A code or abbreviation, unique within the scope of the vocabulary, that denotes the concept in data instances. Not required if unique URIs are used instead; the convention must be defined in a vocabulary profile. Notation values are commonly short strings that are easier to interpret than the concept identifier.

skos:altLabel¶

• Cardinality: optional

• JSON: "skos:altLabel": "{string or LanguageTaggedValue}"

• Description: Other labels, also in language-specific form.

Data types¶

This profile uses the shared LanguageTaggedValue, object reference, and PropertyValue patterns defined on the Common data types page.