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

### The eml-project module - Research context information for resources

The eml-project module describes the research context in which the dataset was created, including descriptions of over-all motivations and goals, funding, personnel, description of the study area etc. This is also the module to describe the design of the project: the scientific questions being asked, the architecture of the design, etc. This module is used to place the dataset that is being documented into its larger research context.

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

## Module details

Recommended Usage: | Use eml-project to document the research context of any dataset or project.
Stand-alone: | no
Imports: | eml-documentation, eml-resource, eml-party, eml-coverage, eml-literature, eml-text
Imported By: |
View an image of the schema: | eml-project image

## Element Definitions:
#### researchProject | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: ResearchProjectType
| The root element of this module. This is used for testing or if you want to instantiate a stand-alone project file.
#### title | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: res:NonEmptyStringType
| A descriptive title for the research project. Example(s): Species diversity in Tennessee riparian habitats.
#### personnel | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Elements: | Use: | How many:

Derived from: rp:ResponsibleParty (by xs:extension)

A sequence of (
role | required |
)
| The Personnel field extends ResponsibleParty with role information and is used to document people involved in a research project by providing contact information and their role in the project. A project must have at least one originator.
#### role | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: rp:RoleType
| The role field contains information about role a person plays in a research project. There are a number of suggested roles, however, it is possible to add a role if the suggested roles are not adequate. Example(s): author contentProvider custodianSteward distributor editor metadataProvider originator owner pointOfContact principalInvestigator processor publisher user fieldStationManager informationManager
#### abstract | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: txt:TextType
| Descriptive abstract that summarizes information about the research project.
#### funding | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: txt:TextType
| The funding field is used to provide information about funding sources for the project such as: grant and contract numbers; names and addresses of funding sources. Other funding-related information may also be included.
#### studyAreaDescription | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Elements: | Use: | How many:
A choice of (
descriptor | required |
OR
citation | optional |
OR
coverage | optional |
)
| The studyAreaDescription field documents the physical area associated with the research project. It can include descriptions of the geographic, temporal, and taxonomic coverage of the research location and descriptions of domains (themes) of interest such as climate, geology, soils or disturbances or reference to citable biological or geophysical classification systems such as the Bailey Ecoregions or the Holdridge Life Zones.
#### descriptor | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Elements: | Use: | How many:
A sequence of (
descriptorValue | required | unbounded
citation | optional | unbounded
)
Attributes: | Use: | Default Value:
name | required
citableClassificationSystem | required
| The descriptor field is used to document domains (themes) of interest such as climate, geology, soils or disturbances or references to citable biological or geophysical classification systems such as the Bailey Ecoregions or the Holdridge Life Zones.
#### descriptorValue | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Attributes: | Use: | Default Value:
name_or_id | optional
| The descriptorValue field contains the value of a descriptor, describing some aspect of the study area. This may either be a general description in textual form or the value part of a "name/value" pair where the name is entered in the attribute "name_or_id". For example, if the value of the "name" attribute" of the element "descriptor" is "climate", and the value of the attribute "name_or_id" of the element "descriptorValue" is "Annual Precipitation" then the value of this element could be "12.5 inches". Example(s): 12.5 inches tundra-forest
#### citation | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: cit:CitationType
| A citation for this descriptor.
#### citation | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: cit:CitationType
| The citation for this descriptor.
#### coverage | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: cov:Coverage
| The coverage of this descriptor.
#### designDescription | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Elements: | Use: | How many:
A choice of (
description | required |
OR
citation | optional |
)
| The field designDescription contains general textual descriptions of research design. It can include detailed accounts of goals, motivations, theory, hypotheses, strategy, statistical design, and actual work. Literature citations may also be used to describe the research design.
#### description | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: txt:TextType
| The field designDescription contains general textual descriptions of research design. It can include detailed accounts of goals, motivations, theory, hypotheses, strategy, statistical design, and actual work.
#### citation | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: cit:CitationType
| The citation field is a citation to literature that describes elements of the research design, such as goals, motivations, theory, hypotheses, strategy, statistical design, and actual work.
#### relatedProject | This element has no default value.
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Type: ResearchProjectType
| This field is a recursive link to another project. This allows projects to be nested under one another for the case where one project spawns another.
## Attribute Definitions:
#### name_or_id
Type: xs:string Use: optional | The name_or_id field is the name part of a name/value pair of a descriptor; or ID portion of a classification, if applicable. The values of biogeophysical classification systems, e.g. Bailey-Ecoregions, often take the form of an ID or Code along with a text representation. For example, the ID/Code M131 refers to the phrase "Open Woodland -Tundra". M131 is an unambiguous reference to a more detailed description. If one is using a published classification system then there should be a corresponding citation to the source, e.g., Bailey,R.G., 1996 "Ecosystem Geography". Example(s): M131 Average Annual Rainfall
#### name
Type: DescriptorType Use: required | The name of the descriptor system. The name can be either a theme such as climate or hydrology, or the name of a citable classification system.
#### citableClassificationSystem
Type: xs:boolean Use: required | This boolean attribute defines whether this descriptor comes from a citable classification system or not.
#### id
Type: res:IDType Use: optional
#### system
Type: res:SystemType Use: optional
#### scope
Type: res:ScopeType Use: optional Default value: document
## Complex Type Definitions:
#### ResearchProjectType |
Content of this field: | Description of this field:
Elements: | Use: | How many:
A choice of (
A sequence of (
title | required | unbounded
personnel | required | unbounded
abstract | optional |
funding | optional |
studyAreaDescription | optional |
designDescription | optional |
relatedProject | optional | unbounded
)
OR
res:ReferencesGroup |  |
)
Attributes: | Use: | Default Value:
id | optional
system | optional
scope | optional | document
| The researchProject complex type describes the structure for documenting the research context of a dataset or another project. It can include research goals, motivations, theory, hypotheses, etc., as well as a description of research efforts that form the basis for other work. (To document methods specific to a dataset use eml-methods.) This field can be associated with a dataset using the project field of eml-dataset, and can be associated with another project using the relatedProject field of eml-project (this module).
## Simple Type Definitions:
### #### DescriptorType
| The DescriptorType is used to represent either the name of a citable classification system/controlled vocabulary such as the Bailey classification of ecoregions or a domain of physical descriptors such as climate or disturbances. Example(s): climate soils hydrology "bailey" biome disturbance geology
## Group Definitions:

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