Metadata and dc:creator in ePub

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Hi,

if I have an author role to insert in an ePub.

Should I include it as:

<dc:creator id="author">Yves</dc:creator>
<meta refines="#author" property="role" scheme="marc:relators">aut</meta>

or can I just set it as:

<dc:creator opf:role="aut">Yves</dc:creator>

I did not exactly understand when to take what! Can you give me further details?

There will be no other dc:creator indication. The metadata counts for the complete publication. It is for an ePub 2, but it may be possible that it changes to ePub 3 in the next time.

Thanks and kind regards,
Yves

The first method is specific to EPUB 3 and the second to EPUB 2.

If validation of your content for distribution is essential, you will have to go with the second approach, as the new <meta> tag defined in EPUB 3 is not valid in EPUB 2 publications.

In terms of cross-compatibility, either approach will work if all you are doing is defining an author. The  dc:creator element is defined as containing the name of a creator of the publication, so in the absence of a recognized modifier the tag is treated as containing an author and the order of the elements determines the order of authorship.

Or, in other words, if you take an EPUB 3 and open it in an EPUB 2 reading system, the meta tag defining the author role will not be understood, but you will still be listed as the author because your name is in a dc:creator element. Likewise, if you open an EPUB 2 in an EPUB 3 reading system (without support for EPUB 2), it will not recognize the opf:role attribute but will still treat the dc:creator as defining an author.

The EPUB 2 specification listed many different creator roles, from authors of specific sections to illustrators, whereas EPUB 3 defers to metadata authorities to define these lists. But, regardless, even if the specific nature is not recognized treating all the creators as "authors" typically will not invalidate your publication. Just be aware that you should always list the creators by importance in the metadata, even if you use the new EPUB 3 metadata that lets you indicate the display priority.

Hi Matt,

Ah OK, so I was in the right direction. I probably will stick on case two as it provides the best compatibility for the moment.

Thanks for you detailed explications. They are very helpful!

Kind regards,
Yves

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