Authors and editors

Authors and editors who contribute to an item being deposited with Crossref are captured in the <contributor> element.  All authors associated with a work should be included in metadata submitted to Crossref. Editors should also be included, particularly if if the editor is included in citations (as with an edited book, for example).

A ‘contributor’ is a person (author or editor) or an organization that is considered the author of a work. Person names must be split into given name and surname. If an author has a single name, the name should be included in <surname>.  If an organization, company, working group, etc. is considered the author of an item, they should be included in the <organization> element. Author affiliation information should be supplied in the <affiliation> element. 

ORCID

An author's ORCID iD should be included in metadata whenever possible (in the <ORCID> element). When an ORCID iD is provided in a metadata record the author's ORCID record is automatically updated via our auto-update process.

Note that the data supplied in the <given_name> and <surname> fields is used for display and query matching and must be as accurate as possible.

<person_name sequence="first" contributor_role="author">
  <given_name>Minerva</given_name>
  <surname>Nipperson</surname>
  <ORCID authenticated="true">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4011-3590</ORCID>
</person_name>

Contributor order

The <person_name> and <organization> elements both include required contributor role and sequence attributes.   An author may be ‘first’ or ‘additional’. Specific sequence numbering is not allowed but many systems using Crossref metadata assume that the order authors are presented in the metadata is the appropriate order for metadata display.

Contributor roles

A contributor may be an author, editor, chair, or translator, with ‘author’ being the default value.

Example

<contributors>
  <person_name sequence="first" contributor_role="author">
    <given_name>Minerva</given_name>
    <surname>Nipperson</surname>
    <suffix>III</suffix>
    <affiliation>University of Cathair</affiliation>
    <ORCID authenticated="true">http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4011-3590</ORCID>
  </person_name>
  <person_name sequence="additional" contributor_role="author">
    <given_name>Christopher </given_name>
    <surname>Fielding</surname>
    <affiliation>University of Cathair</affiliation>
  </person_name>
  <person_name sequence="additional" contributor_role="author">
    <given_name>Katharine </given_name>
    <surname>Mech</surname>
  </person_name>
</contributors>