This document describes the kinds of changes that may be made to the canonical PeriodO dataset. Note that any of these allowed changes will trigger new versions of the authorities or periods that they modify. In addition to the changes described below, new properties using predicates not listed below may be added at any time.
There must be one dcterms:source value. The value of dcterms:source must be a bibliographic description. It should change only if it is determined that a spelling, punctuation, or other clerical error was made when creating the bibliographic description of the original source, or if additional bibliographic information is added (e.g. a DOI is assigned to a journal article that previously did not have one).
There must be one skos:prefLabel value. The value of skos:prefLabel should change only if it is determined that a spelling, punctuation, or other clerical error was made when transcribing the name of the period exactly as given in the original source.
There must be one or more skos:altLabel values. New skos:altLabel values may be added at any time. Existing skos:altLabel values should not be removed except to correct spelling, punctuation, or other clerical mistakes.
There may be one skos:note value. If there is not a skos:note value, one may be added at any time. The value of skos:note should change only if it is determined that a spelling, punctuation, or other clerical error was made, or to add more notes taken from the source.
There may be one skos:editorialNote value. If there is not a skos:editorialNote value, one may be added at any time. The value of skos:editorialNote may change at any time.
There must be one skos:inScheme value, and it must never change.
There may be one dcterms:source value. The value of dcterms:source should change only if it is determined that a spelling, punctuation, or other clerical error was made when specifying bibliographic information specific to an individual period.
There must be one time:intervalStartedBy value and one time:intervalFinishedBy value. These values must be temporal intervals. See below for policy on changes to temporal intervals.
There may be one skos:spatialCoverageDescription value. If there is not a skos:spatialCoverageDescription value, one may be added at any time. The value of skos:spatialCoverageDescription should change only if it is determined that a spelling, punctuation, or other clerical error was made when transcribing the spatial coverage description from the original source.
There must be at least one dcterms:spatial value. New dcterms:spatial values may be added, and existing ones may be removed, at any time.
There must be one skos:prefLabel value. The value of skos:prefLabel should change only if it is determined that a spelling, punctuation, or other clerical error was made when transcribing the description of the interval exactly as given in the original source.
There must be one time:hasDateTimeDescription value. This value must be a date-time description. See below for policy on changes to date-time descriptions.
Typically the values of time:year, periodo:earliestYear, and periodo:latestYear will not change. However, in the future PeriodO curators may decide that it necessary to make a systematic change to the way textual descriptions of temporal intervals are interpreted as structured date-time descriptions. Such a systematic change could cause these values to change. However, the PeriodO curators will not make such a change without first consulting with the PeriodO board of advisors and other interested parties.