3 Authors and other contributors
Table 3.1, Markup for contributors contains examples of markup for authors and other contributors. In this table, the author element can be replaced by editor or othercredit. It may be advisable to enclose multiple author, editor, or othercredit elements in authorgroup. See Open Question 2.
I think that contributor(s) (authorgroup or some combination of author, editor, or othercredit) should be required. If there is no person(s) or organization to credit as the originator of the resource, I suggest using unknown
or anonymous
rather than omitting this information. That makes this information explicit so that a stylesheet that implements a style can decide the best way to render the output in this situation (e.g., some styles omit the author when it's unknown or anonymous, and others use Anonymous
or some other keyword for this situation).
| Type | Markup | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| human | <author>
<personname>
<firstname>FIRST</firstname>
<surname>LAST</surname>
</personname>
</author> | firstname can also be givenname. Can also include honorific, lineage, or othername (see those entries in this table for more). |
| organization | <author> <orgname>ORG NAME</orgname> </author> | |
| honorific | <personname>
…
<honorific>Mr.</honorific>
</personname> | Prefixes such as Mr., Mrs., or Dr. Not required. Probably ignored by most styles. |
| lineage | <personname>
…
<honorific>Jr.</honorific>
</personname> | Suffixes such as Jr., Sr., or III. Not required. Used by some styles in full bibliography entries and notes. |
| othername | <personname>
…
<othername>J</othername>
</personname> | A part of a name that isn’t covered by the other elements here. That could include middle names, initials, or nicknames. The Definitive Guide suggests using role to disambiguate this element. I’m not sure if it’s best to use othername for middle names or initials or to leave them as part of the first name (see Open Question 5). |