Metadata for research integrity: a joint guide from Crossref and DataCite

Guide · April 2026

Download PDF

What this guide covers

This guide walks through the key metadata elements that enable research integrity assessment, and explains how to contribute them via Crossref and DataCite:

• Contributors and their roles—identifying who did what
• Affiliations—linking researchers to institutions
• Dates—submission, acceptance, publication, and update dates
• Funder, funding, and grant information—transparency on who paid for the research
• Versioning—tracking how a work has changed over time
• Retractions, corrections, and updates—keeping the record accurate
• Abstracts and descriptions—what the work is actually about
• Clinical trials—registration and reporting
• References—connecting works to what they cite
• Peer reviews—when and how work was reviewed
• Publisher and steward—accountability for the record
• Record and resource types—what kind of object is this?
• Relationships and related identifiers—linking datasets, preprints, articles, and more
• Rights, licences, and access—how the work can be used

The guide also sets out a call to action for each stakeholder group: how to enrich your records, query existing metadata via APIs, and report inconsistencies.

Read the full guide