Next step: Citation data
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It is likely that your CITATION.cff
currently doesn't pass validation. The error messages you get from the cffconvert
GitHub Action are unfortunately a bit cryptic, but doing the following helps:
- Check if the
given-name
andfamily-name
keys need updating. If your family name has a name particle likevon
orvan
orde
, use thename-particle
key; if your name has a suffix likeSr
orIV
, usename-suffix
. For details, refer to the schema description: https://github.com/citation-file-format/citation-file-format - Update the value of the
orcid
key. If you do not have an orcid yet, you can get one here https://orcid.org/. - Add more authors if needed
- Update
date-released
using the YYYY-MM-DD format. - Update the
doi
key with the conceptDOI for your repository (see https://help.zenodo.org for more information on what a conceptDOI is). If your project doesn't have a DOI yet, you can use the string10.0000/FIXME
to pass validation. - Verify that the
keywords
array accurately describes your project.
Once you do all the steps above, the cffconvert
workflow will tell you what content it expected to see in .zenodo.json
. Copy-paste from the GitHub Action log into a new file .zenodo.json
. Afterwards, the cffconvert
GitHub Action should be green.
To help you keep the citation metadata up to date and synchronized, the cffconvert
GitHub Action checks the following 6 aspects:
-
Whether your repository includes a
CITATION.cff
file.By including this file, authors of the software can receive credit for the work they put in.
-
Whether your
CITATION.cff
is valid YAML.Visit http://www.yamllint.com/ to see if the contents of your CITATION.cff are valid YAML.
-
Whether your
CITATION.cff
adheres to the schema (as listed in theCITATION.cff
file itself under keycff-version
).The Citation File Format schema can be found here, along with an explanation of all the keys. You're advised to use the latest available schema version.
-
Whether your repository includes a
.zenodo.json
file.With this file, you can control what metadata should be associated with any future releases of your software on Zenodo: things like the author names, along with their affiliations and their ORCIDs, the license under which the software has been released, as well as the name of your software and a short description. If your repository doesn't have a .zenodo.json file, Zenodo will take a somewhat crude guess to assign these metadata.
The
cffconvert
GitHub action will tell you what it expects to find in.zenodo.json
, just copy and paste it to a new file named.zenodo.json
. The suggested text ignores CITATION.cff'sversion
,commit
, anddate-released
.cffconvert
considers these keyssuspect
in the sense that they are often out of date, and there is little purpose to telling Zenodo about these properties: Zenodo already knows. -
Whether
.zenodo.json
is valid JSON.Currently unimplemented, but you can check for yourself on https://jsonlint.com/.
-
Whether
CITATION.cff
and.zenodo.json
contain equivalent data.This final check verifies that the two files are in sync. The check ignores CITATION.cff's
version
,commit
, anddate-released
.