The use of controlled vocabularies for bibliographic metadata “ensures that everyone is using the same word to mean the same thing”. The continuous revision, update and maintenance of the COAR Controlled Vocabularies and its adoption by the most commonly used open repository software is a way to enhance the interoperability across repositories and with other related systems such as harvesters, CRIS systems, data repositories and publishers.
The COAR Controlled Vocabularies are governed and maintained by an Editorial Board. In order to define the controlled vocabularies, the Editorial Board analyzes existing vocabularies and dictionaries and will adopt the most appropriate existing terms and definitions whenever possible. In cases where there are gaps identified by the community, new terms are defined by the group. The COAR Controlled Vocabulary Editorial Board also translates vocabulary terms into numerous languages.
COAR Controlled Vocabularies Editorial Board
- Isabel Bernal, CSIC, Spain (chair)
- Joseph Cera, University of California-Berkeley, US
- Mick Eadie, University of Glasgow, United Kingd
- Benedetta Gandolini, 4Science, Italy
- Sebastiano Giorgi, UOC, Spain
- Gültekin Gürdal, Izmir Institute of Technology Library, Turkey
- Tomoko Kataoka, JPCOAR, Japan
- Pierre Lasou, Université Laval, Canada
- Yoo Young Lee, University of Ottawa, Canada
- Ku (Alan) Liping, Chinese Academy of Science
- Katharina Menhard, Technische Universität Graz, Austria
- Gretchen Neidhardt, Northwestern University, United States
- Milan Ojsteršek, University of Maribor, Slovenia
- Pedro Príncipe, Universidade do Minho, Portugal
- Ellen Ramsey, COAR
- Jochen Schirrwagen, Aachen University, Germany
- Corinna Schneider, Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), Germany
- Milica Sevkusic, EIFL Serbia
- Kathleen Shearer, COAR
Additional Translators
- Barbara Aristidou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
- Rawia Awadallah, Arab States Research and Education Network
- Aysen Binen, Izmir Institute of Technology, Turkey
- Jessica Byström, Chalmers University, Sweden
- Julie Gauthier, University of Montreal, Canada
- Diana Furcila Mihalache, FECYT, Spain
- Hyekyong Hwang, KISTI, Korea
- Krisztina Korosi, University Library of Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
- Iryna Kuchma, EIFL, Ukraine
- Christian Lacroix, University of Montreal, Canada
- Petra Magnusson, Chalmers University, Sweden
- George Macgregor, University of Glasgow, UK
- Antonia Nicolaou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
- Jussi Piipponen, University of Helsinki, Finland
- Carmen Posse, University Library of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
- Irina Razumova, COAR
- Sa-kwang Song, KISTI, Korea
- Wilko Steinhoff, DANS, Netherlands
COAR maintains three controlled vocabularies that have been translated into numerous languages. We invite the international community to adopt these vocabularies in their local repositories.
Please note: The Resource Type Vocabulary was updated on December 4, 2024 is now available in 25 languages. See the blog post for more details.
Need help in implementing the COAR Vocabularies? See our Implementation Guide
See or download our poster about the COAR Resource Type Vocabulary
