Towards FAIR Mappings implementation

FAIR Mappings WG

Joonas Kesäniemi

Toshiyuki Hiraki

2025-10-13

25^th RDA Plenary Meeting �Brisbane, 2025

Acknowledgement of Country

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Agenda

• WG status update (5 mins)
• Introduction to the current draft of the FAIR Mapping ontology (10 mins)
• FAIR Mapping examples and discussion
• Running example introduction
• Mapping cases covered by our examples
• 3 schema mappings
• 2 mapping set
• Mapping specification model overview
• Mapping metadata comparison
• Distributing metadata (if time permits)

WG - Planned deliveries

• Technical and methodological recommendations
• Harmonized mappings case study collection
• Mapping taxonomy/ontology
• Exchange model for different types of mappings and associated metadata
• FAIR Mappings Knowledge Base

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Status update

• Work on refining the ontology/taxonomy continues
• Feedback solicitation regarding FAIR Mappings recommendations on-going (FAIR-IMPACT)
• FAIR Mappings recommendations
• Practical Mapping Framework
• Summary and links to action items
• https://mapping-commons.github.io/rda-fair-mappings/recommendation/
• Discussions and iterations around the FAIR Mappings Specification
• Metadata model
• Mapping representations
• Case studies

Towards mappings ontology (WIP)

Mapping specification creation (process)

prov:Activity

prov:Entity

Mapping relationship

mapping statement

prov:wasGeneratedBy

Mapping specification

mapping function

Mapping execution (process)

has part

Lexical matching

Manual mapping curation

ontology bridge axiom (complex)

digital object

prov:wasGeneratedBy

has input (prov:uses)

has input (prov:uses)

dcat:Dataset

Mapping activity (process)

schema mapping

mapping set

LinkML-map

XSLT script

pure Python script

SSSOM document

named equivalence axiom (simple)

Towards mappings ontology (WIP)

Mapping specification creation (process)

prov:Activity

prov:Entity

Mapping relationship

mapping statement

prov:wasGeneratedBy

Mapping specification

mapping function

Mapping execution (process)

has part

Lexical matching

Manual mapping curation

ontology bridge axiom (complex)

digital object

prov:wasGeneratedBy

has input (prov:uses)

has input (prov:uses)

dcat:Dataset

Mapping activity (process)

schema mapping

mapping set

LinkML-map

XSLT script

pure Python script

SSSOM document

named equivalence axiom (simple)

Scope of this session

Mapping specification

schema mapping

mapping set

LinkML-map

XSLT script

Python script

SSSOM document

SKOS document

Case studies - current status

• Number of cases: 25
• Mapping specifications types:
• 8 schema mappings
• Data transformation
• Schema transformation
• Schema subsetting
• 17 mapping sets
• 6 ontology mappings
• 11 entity mappings
• Distinct mappings specification implementations:
• Python, SSSOM TSV, SSSOM RDF, RDF reification, SKOS, �Custom JSON, I-ADOPT, RDFS, �LinkML, LinkML-Map, XSLT, OWL �and SPARQL

What maketh a mapping FAIR?

• Mapping specification must
• be accessible via GUPRI
• include metadata according to the FAIR Mappings data model
• No requirement for a specific way of representing mapping relationships
• Our case study collection already contains ~15 different ones
• Differences in composability and machine-actionability
• Recommendations for specific use cases / Pros and cons of different approaches

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Running example:

DataCite to DCAP-AP (subset)

• Documentation available at https://ec-jrc.github.io/datacite-to-dcat-ap/
• Source schema: DataCite 4.4
• Target schema:
• CiteDCAT-AP core

“This profile defines alignments for the subset of DataCite metadata elements supported by DCAT-AP.”

• CiteDCAT-AP extended

“This profile defines alignments for all the DataCite metadata elements using DCAT-AP and other Semantic Web vocabularies (whenever DCAT-AP does not provide suitable candidates).”

Mapping cases covered by examples

Schema mapping

Case 1.1: Collection time period transformation

Time periods are expressed in DataCite using RKMS-ISO8601 standard whereas DCAT uses separate dcat:startDate and dcat:endDate properties. This requires one-to-many mapping.

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Case 1.2 : Language element transformation

DataCite uses languages defined in RFC 3066 which are mapped to URIs containing three letter codes for the DCAT.

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Mapping sets

Case 2.1 - Data vocabulary mapping

Mapping between elements of the DataCite data format vocabulary to properties of the DCAT-AP using information from the 1st level mapping table.

Mapping specifications

Schema mappings

• XSLT
• LinkML-Map
• Python

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Mapping sets

• SKOS
• SSSOM

Schema mappings

For data transformation

Schema mapping:

Example inputs and outputs

Input data example

<dates>

<date dateType=”Collected”>

2004-03-02/2005-06-02

</date>

</dates>

<language>en</language>

Output data example

<subject> dct:temporal

[

a dct:PeriodOfTime ;

dcat:startDate "2004-03-02"^^xsd:date ;

dcat:endDate "2005-06-02"^^xsd:date

] .

<subject> dct:language <http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/language/eng> .

​

XSLT Mapping specification

• Based on the XSLT implementation by EC, JCR and Andrea Perego
• Only includes templates to handle mapping cases 1.1 and 1.2 (collection date and language)
• Example source document: Full DataCite XML example
• Can be executed with any capable XSLT processor

XSLT data transformation demo

LinkML-Map mapping specification

“LinkML Map is a framework for specifying and executing mappings between data models.” - LinkML-Map website

• Schema mapping specification can be executed using linkml-map tool with following parameters:
• Input schema
• Transformation document (= mapping specification)
• Source type
• Source document
• Full example available in the FAIR Mappings WG github repo

LinkML-Map mapping specification

class_derivations:

populated_from: Date

description: |

Transform Date to dct:PeriodOfTime by parsing the date range in the value field.

Extracts start and end dates from a date range like "2004-03-02/2005-06-02"

slot_derivations:

type:

expr: "'PeriodOfTime'"

description: Set RDF type to PeriodOfTime

start_date:

expr: |

target = src.value.split('/')[0]

description: Extract start date (before the slash) from the value field

end_date:

expr: |

target = src.value.split('/')[1]

description: Extract end date (after the slash) from the value field

LinkML-Map data transformation demo

Python mapping specification

• Custom script that takes source document as input
• Built-in logic related to specific versions of source and target schemas → Purpose built for this specific mapping case
• PEP 723 – Inline script metadata
• Provides a way to include dependency information to the script for easy replication of the runtime environment
• Step towards easily re-usable python based mapping components

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Python mapping specification

Schema mapping summary

• All mapping specifications tackle the same problem
• Same source content format and data model
• Target document
• Same data model
• Different format

Mapping sets

For entity alignment

SSSOM mapping specification (TSV)

Selected 1st level mappings from DataCite to CiteDCAT-AP

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SKOS mapping specification (Turtle)

datacite:Identifier skos:exactMatch dct:identifier .

datacite:Publisher skos:exactMatch dct:publisher .

datacite:Language skos:exactMatch dct:language .

datacite:FundingReference skos:exactMatch citedcat:isFundedBy .

datacite:Version skos:exactMatch owl:versionInfo .

datacite:Date skos:broadMatch dct:created .

Mapping specification metadata

Ontology reminder

Mapping specification

schema mapping

mapping set

LinkML-map

XSLT script

Python script

SSSOM document

SKOS document

Mapping specification metadata

• First initial draft
• Cardinalities
• Names
• Enumerations
• Aligned with SSSOM
• Generate SSSOM MappingSet metadata from FAIR Mappings MappingSpecification metadata
• Classes
• MappingSpecification
• Agent
• Source

Mapping specification enumerations

XSLT mapping specification metadata

id: http://w3id.org/fmtest/transforms/dataset-to-dcat/xslt

name: Example XSLT mapping specification created for the RDA FAIR Mappings Working Group

description: This example has been create by creating a subset of the CiteDCAP-AP XSLT script (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ec-jrc/datacite-to-dcat-ap/master/datacite-to-dcat-ap.xsl) created by European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) and Andrea Perego (https://github.com/andrea-perego).

author:

id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3770-0006

name: Joonas Kesäniemi

publication_date: 2025-10-11

license: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/eupl

version: "0.1.0"

representation_technique: xslt

mapping_method: https://w3id.org/semapv/vocab/ManualMappingCuration

documentation: https://ec-jrc.github.io/datacite-to-dcat-ap/

content_url: link

subject_source:

id: https://doi.org/10.14454/fxws-0523

name: DataCite 4.4 XML Schema

version: "4.4"

type: schema

documentation: https://doi.org/10.14454/3w3z-sa82

content_url: https://schema.datacite.org/meta/kernel-4.4/metadata.xsd

representation_technique: xmlschema

object_source:

id: https://mapping-commons.github.io/rda-fair-mappings/example/dcat-date.schema.shacl

name: DataCite profile of DCAT-AP (RDA FAIR Mappings WG P25 example subset)

version: "0.1.0"

type: schema

content_url: link

representation_technique: shacl

LinkML-Map mapping specification metadata

id: http://w3id.org/fmtest/transforms/dataset-to-dcat

name: Dataset Metadata to DCAT Transformation

description: Demonstrates transformation of DataCite date ranges to DCAT-AP temporal periods

and language code to EU authority URI.

author:

id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7356-1779

name: Nicolas Matentzoglu

publication_date: 2025-10-10

license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

version: "0.1.0"

representation_technique: linkml-map

mapping_method: https://w3id.org/semapv/vocab/ManualMappingCuration

content_url: link

subject_source:

id: https://mapping-commons.github.io/rda-fair-mappings/example/datacite-date.schema.yml

name: DataCite Date Schema (simplified for date transformation example)

type: schema

documentation: https://doi.org/10.14454/3w3z-sa82

content_url: link

representation_technique: linkml

object_source:

id: https://mapping-commons.github.io/rda-fair-mappings/example/dcat-date.schema.yml

name: DCAT Date Schema (simplified for date transformation example)

type: schema

documentation: https://www.w3.org/TR/vocab-dcat-2/

content_url: link

representation_technique: linkml

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Python mapping specification metadata

Id: http://w3id.org/fmtest/transforms/dataset-to-dcat/python

name: Dataset Metadata to DCAT Transformation

description: Demonstrates transformation of DataCite date ranges to DCAT-AP temporal periods

and language code to EU authority URI.

author:

id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3770-0006

name: Joonas Kesäniemi

publication_date: 2025-10-10

license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

version: "0.1.0"

representation_technique: python

mapping_method: https://w3id.org/semapv/vocab/ManualMappingCuration

content_url: link

subject_source:

id: https://doi.org/10.14454/fxws-0523

name: DataCite 4.4 XML Schema

version: "4.4"

type: schema

documentation: https://doi.org/10.14454/3w3z-sa82

content_url: https://schema.datacite.org/meta/kernel-4.4/metadata.xsd

representation_technique: xmlschema

object_source:

id: https://mapping-commons.github.io/rda-fair-mappings/example/dcat-date.schema.shacl

name: DataCite profile of DCAT-AP (RDA FAIR Mappings WG P25 example subset)

version: "0.1.0"

type: schema

content_url: link

representation_technique: shacl

Python mapping specification metadata

Id: http://w3id.org/fmtest/transforms/dataset-to-dcat/python

name: Dataset Metadata to DCAT Transformation

description: Demonstrates transformation of DataCite date ranges to DCAT-AP temporal periods

and language code to EU authority URI.

author:

id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3770-0006

name: Joonas Kesäniemi

publication_date: 2025-10-10

license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

version: "0.1.0"

representation_technique: python

mapping_method: https://w3id.org/semapv/vocab/ManualMappingCuration

content_url: link

subject_source:

id: https://doi.org/10.14454/fxws-0523

name: DataCite 4.4 XML Schema

version: "4.4"

type: schema

documentation: https://doi.org/10.14454/3w3z-sa82

content_url: https://schema.datacite.org/meta/kernel-4.4/metadata.xsd

representation_technique: xmlschema

object_source:

id: https://mapping-commons.github.io/rda-fair-mappings/example/dcat-date.schema.shacl

name: DataCite profile of DCAT-AP (RDA FAIR Mappings WG P25 example subset)

version: "0.1.0"

type: schema

content_url: link

representation_technique: shacl

Identical with XSLT mapping specification

Embedding metadata with mapping specification

Embedded metadata

• Always distributed with the mapping specification
• Option 1:
• Include metadata as document header
• Use comments (implementation specific e.g. # or <!-- -->)
• Provide FAIR Mappings mapping specification metadata as YAML (shared processing)
• Metadata can be modeled independently from the mapping representation technique
• Option 2:
• Use the metadata capabilities of the chosen mapping specification
• Option 3:
• Provide a mapping specification where the target is the FAIR Mapping model (e.g. SSSOM / LinkML metadata → FAIR Mappings metadata)

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Example: XSLT

<!--

id: fm:dataset-to-dcat/xslt

name: Example XSLT mapping specification

author:

id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3770-0006

name: Joonas Kesäniemi

publication_date: 2025-10-11

license: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/eupl

version: "0.1.0"

representation_technique: xslt

mapping_method: semapv:ManualMappingCuration

documentation: https://ec-jrc.github.io/datacite-to-dcat-ap/

-->

<xsl:transform>

<xsl:template match=”/”>

..

</xsl:transform>

<xsl:transform>

<fm:id>fm:dataset-to-dcat/xslt</fm:id>

<fm:name>Example XSLT mapping specification</fm:name>

<fm:author>

<fm:id>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3770-0006</fm:id>

<fm:name>Joonas Kesäniemi</fm:name>

</fm:author>

<fm:license>

https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/eupl

</fm:license>

<fm:version>0.1.0</fm:version>

<fm:representation_technique>

xslt

</fm:representation_technique>

…

​

<xsl:template match=”/”>

…

</xsl:transform>

Option 1

Option 2

Example: Python

# id: fm:dataset-to-dcat

# name: Dataset Metadata to DCAT Transformation

# author:

# id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3770-0006

# name: Joonas Kesäniemi

# publication_date: 2025-10-11

# license: cc:by

# version: "0.1.0"

# representation_technique: python

# mapping_method: semapv:ManualMappingCuration

# documentation: ...

​

if __name__ == '__main__':

...

​

?

Option 1

Option 2

Example: LinkML-Map

# id: fm:dataset-to-dcat

# name: Dataset Metadata to DCAT Transformation

# author:

# id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7356-1779

# name: Nicolas Matentzoglu

# publication_date: 2025-10-11

# license: cc:by

# version: "0.1.0"

# representation_technique: linkml-map

# mapping_method: semapv:ManualMappingCuration

# documentation: ...

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id: https://example.org/transforms/dataset-to-dcat

title: Dataset Metadata to DCAT Transformation

description: |

Demonstrates transformation of DataCite date ranges to DCAT-AP temporal periods

and language code to EU authority URI.

class_derivations:

MappingSpecification:

populated_from: MappingSet

slot_derivations:

name:

populated_from: title

publication_date:

populated_from: publication_date

Agent:

populated_from: MappingSet

slot_derivations:

id: creator_id

name: creator_label

Option 1

Option 3

Thank you