# Module Documentation: eml-party | Back to EML Contents

### The eml-party module - People and organization information

The eml-party module describes a responsible party and is typically used to name the creator of a resource or metadata document. A responsible party may be an individual person, an organization or a named position within an organization. The eml-party module contains detailed contact information. It is used throughout the other EML modules where detailed contact information is needed.

The eml-party module, like other modules, may be "referenced" via the <references> tag. This allows a party to be described once, and then used as a reference in other locations within the EML document via its ID.

## Module details

Recommended Usage: | all datasets
Stand-alone: | yes
Imports: | eml-documentation, eml-resource
Imported By: |
View an image of the schema: | eml-party image

## Element Definitions:
#### individualName | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: Person
| The individualName field contains subfields so that a person's name can be broken down into parts. Note that the the content model for the containing type allows a sequence of choices for the first element(s): <individualName>, <organizationName> and/or <positionName>. This means that a parent element (e.g., creator) may use combinations of the 3 sub-elements to make up a single logical party. For example, a creator with only the individualName of 'Joe Smith' is NOT the same as a creator with the individualName of 'Joe Smith' and the organizationName of 'NSF'. To include both a positionName and an organizationName as children of a <contact> implies that anyone currently occupying that positionName at that organizationName is an appropriate contact. The positionName should not be used in conjunction with individualName unless only that specific individual at that position would be considered appropriate for that designation. Example(s): Because this is an 'elementOnly' field, please look at the examples for the subfields 'givenName' and 'surName'.
#### organizationName | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: res:i18nNonEmptyStringType
| The responsible party field contains the full name of the organization that is associated with the resource. This field is intended to describe which institution or overall organization is associated with the resource being described. Note that the the content model for the containing type allows a sequence of choices for the first element(s): <individualName>, <organizationName> and/or <positionName>. This means that a parent element (e.g., creator) may use combinations of the 3 sub-elements to make up a single logical party. For example, a creator with only the individualName of 'Joe Smith' is NOT the same as a creator with the individualName of 'Joe Smith' and the organizationName of 'NSF'. To include both a positionName and an organizationName as children of a <contact> implies that anyone currently occupying that positionName at that organizationName is an appropriate contact. The positionName should not be used in conjunction with individualName unless only that specific individual at that position would be considered appropriate for that designation. Example(s): National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
#### positionName | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: res:i18nNonEmptyStringType
| This field is intended to be used instead of a particular person or full organization name. If the associated person who holds the role changes frequently, then Position Name would be used for consistency. Note that the the content model for the containing type allows a sequence of choices for the first element(s): <individualName>, <organizationName> and/or <positionName>. This means that a parent element (e.g., creator) may use combinations of the 3 sub-elements to make up a single logical party. For example, a creator with only the individualName of 'Joe Smith' is NOT the same as a creator with the individualName of 'Joe Smith' and the organizationName of 'NSF'. To include both a positionName and an organizationName as children of a <contact> implies that anyone currently occupying that positionName at that organizationName is an appropriate contact. The positionName should not be used in conjunction with individualName unless only that specific individual at that position would be considered appropriate for that designation. Example(s): Niwot Ridge Data Manager
#### address | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: Address
| The address field is a container for multiple subfields that describe the physical or electronic address of the responsible party for a resource. Example(s): Please see the subfield examples.
#### phone | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Attributes: | Use: | Default Value:
phonetype | optional | voice
| The phone field describes information about the responsible party's telephone, be it a voice phone, fax, or TTD/TTY type telephone. This field contains an attribute used to identify the type. Example(s): 805-555-2500
#### electronicMailAddress | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: res:i18nNonEmptyStringType
| The electronic mail address is the email address for the party. It is intended to be an Internet SMTP email address, which should consist of a username followed by the @ symbol, followed by the email server domain name address. Other address types are allowable. Example(s): my-email@mydomain.edu
#### onlineUrl | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: xs:anyURI
| A link to associated online information, usually a web site. When the party represents an organization, this is the URL to a website or other online information about the organization. If the party is an individual, it might be their personal web site or other related online information about the party. Example(s): http://www.yourdomain.edu/~doe
#### userId | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Attributes: | Use: | Default Value:
directory | required
| An identifier that links this party to a directory of personnel. Although specific contact information for a party might change, the underlying correspondence to a real individual does not. This identifier provides a pointer within a personnel directory that may contain further, and possibly more current, information about the party. Example(s): uid=jtown,o=NCEAS,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org
#### salutation | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: res:i18nNonEmptyStringType
| The salutation field is used in addressing an individual with a particular title, such as Dr., Ms., Mrs., Mr., etc. Example(s): Dr.
#### givenName | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: res:i18nNonEmptyStringType
| The given name field can be used for first name of the individual associated with the resource, or for any other names that are not intended to be alphabetized, (as appropriate). Note that while it is possible to include all given names in one field (as in the example below), it may be not be good practice to do so. For example, if an XSL transformation stylesheet were to abbreviate the content of a givenName to just the first initial, a givenName element that contained more than one name would not be transformed correctly. Example(s): Juan Luis Jane
#### surName | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: res:i18nNonEmptyStringType
| The surname field is used for the last name of the individual associated with the resource. This is typically the family name of an individual, for example, the name by which s/he is referred to in citations. Example(s): San Gil Curtis-Ainsworth Tao
#### deliveryPoint | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: res:i18nNonEmptyStringType
| The delivery point field is used for the physical address for postal communication. This field is used to accommodate the many different international conventions that are the equivalent to a U.S. 'street address'. Example(s): 7209 Coast Drive, Building 44
#### city | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: res:i18nNonEmptyStringType
| The city field is used for the city name of the contact associated with a particular resource. Example(s): San Francisco
#### administrativeArea | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: res:i18nNonEmptyStringType
| The administrative area field is the equivalent of a 'state' in the U.S., or Province in Canada. This field is intended to accommodate the many types of international administrative areas. Example(s): Colorado
#### postalCode | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: res:i18nNonEmptyStringType
| The postal code is equivalent to a U.S. zip code, or the number used for routing to an international address. The U.S. postal code should include the 5 digit code plus the 4 digit extension. Example(s): 93106-2231
#### country | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: res:i18nNonEmptyStringType
| The country field is used for the name of the contact's country. Example(s): U.S.A.
#### party | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: ResponsibleParty
| The responsible party contains multiple subfields that are used to describe a person, organization, or position within an organization. It is intended to be used to fully document contact information for many types of associations, such as owner, manager, steward, curator, etc.
## Attribute Definitions:
#### phonetype
Type: xs:string Use: optional Default value: voice | This attribute gives the type of phone to which this number applies. By default, this is assumed to be of type "voice", but other possibilities include "facsimile" and "tdd".
#### directory
Type: xs:string Use: required | This attribute names the directory system to which this userId applies. This will generally be a URL that shows how to look up information, for example an LDAP url. However, it could also be a non-parsable description of the directory system if that is all that is available. Example(s): ldap:///ldap.ecoinformatics.org/dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org
#### id
Type: res:IDType Use: optional
#### system
Type: res:SystemType Use: optional
#### scope
Type: res:ScopeType Use: optional Default value: document
#### id
Type: res:IDType Use: optional
#### system
Type: res:SystemType Use: optional
#### scope
Type: res:ScopeType Use: optional Default value: document
## Complex Type Definitions:
#### ResponsibleParty |
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Elements: | Use: | How many:
A choice of (
A sequence of (
A choice of (
individualName | required |
OR
organizationName | required |
OR
positionName | required |
)
address | optional | unbounded
phone | optional | unbounded
electronicMailAddress | optional | unbounded
onlineUrl | optional | unbounded
userId | optional | unbounded
)
OR
res:ReferencesGroup |  |
)
Attributes: | Use: | Default Value:
id | optional
system | optional
scope | optional | document
| The ResponsibleParty Type contains elements that are used to describe the person, organization or position within an organization that is associated in some way with the resource. It is intended to be used to fully document contact information for many types of associations, such as owner, manager, steward, curator, etc. Note that the content model for a responsible party type allows a sequence of choices for the first element(s): <individualName>, <organizationName> and/or <positionName>. This means that a parent element (e.g., creator) may use combinations of the 3 sub-elements to make up a single logical party. For example, a creator with only the individualName of 'Joe Smith' is NOT the same as a creator with the individualName of 'Joe Smith' and the organizationName of 'NSF'. To include both a positionName and an organizationName as children of a <contact> implies that anyone currently occupying that positionName at that organizationName is an appropriate contact. The positionName should not be used in conjunction with individualName unless only that specific individual at that position would be considered appropriate for that designation. Example(s): Please see the examples for the particular subfields.
#### Person |
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Elements: | Use: | How many:
A sequence of (
salutation | optional | unbounded
givenName | optional | unbounded
surName | required |
)
| The person Type is used to enter the salutation, and two types of name parts for an individual associated with the resource. It uses these three subfields to help parse the person's entire name. The two elements, <givenName> and <surName>, allow parsing of many types of names, even though distinct elements do not exist for concepts like "middle name" and "compound surname". <givenName> should be used for parts of the name that are often shortened to a first initial, or are not used for ordering, and typically includes first and middle names. The <surName> field is intended to be used for the part of the name that is generally displayed in its entirety and/or is alphabetized or otherwise ordered when appropriate. Note that only one <surName> is allowed, and is required, while <givenName>s are optional and unbounded. The arrangement and content of the sub-elements is entirely up to the EML document's author, who presumably has first-hand knowledge of how the names are to be constructed. For example, if element position is important (e.g., the list of a book's authors), then EML authors should put the creators in that order. If it is appropriate for a resource to have its creators sorted alphabetically, then the EML author should construct the name parts so that the<surName> field may be used for this purpose. At this time, EML is not able to express cultural conventions so that authors may indicate the correct order for <givenName>s and <surName> when the whole name is expressed. However support for international names is under consideration for a future version of EML, along with other internationalization features. Example(s): Please see the examples within each subfield.
#### Address |
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Elements: | Use: | How many:
A choice of (
A sequence of (
deliveryPoint | optional | unbounded
city | optional |
administrativeArea | optional |
postalCode | optional |
country | optional |
)
OR
res:ReferencesGroup |  |
)
Attributes: | Use: | Default Value:
id | optional
system | optional
scope | optional | document
| The address field is provides detailed information for communicating with a party contact via electronic mail or postal mail, including the physical delivery location. Example(s): Please see the examples for each subfield
## Simple Type Definitions:
### #### RoleType
| The role code field provides information on how a person or organization is related to a resource. There may be many people associated, including an 'originator' of a dataset, an 'author', 'editor', or 'publisher' of a literature resource, or an organization that is a 'distributor'. the full list of choices is included in the example. Example(s): author, contentProvider, custodianSteward, distributor, editor, metadataProvider, originator, pointOfContact, principalInvestigator, processor, publisher, or user.
## Group Definitions:

Web Contact: jones@nceas.ucsb.edu