Read Only: Definition

Ask about Read only

Answers are drawn from this dictionary entry and the rest of the CASRAI corpus, with a link to every source.

Answers are AI-generated from CASRAI’s own published pages and can be wrong, so check the linked sources before relying on one; your question is logged without personal data — never sold, never used to train a third-party model — to show us what CASRAI is missing, so please do not type personal or confidential details. How we use this

Worked examples

Is an instance

A published dataset record in a repository that any visitor can view and download but cannot edit, because only the depositing author or repository administrator holds write access.

Is an instance

A finalized grant record in a CRIS that reporting staff can view but not modify, since editing rights are restricted to the original submitter.

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance

A shared document that collaborators can both view and edit is not read-only, since it grants write access.

Not an instance

A record that is entirely inaccessible to a given user, with no view permission at all, is not read-only either; read-only requires that viewing is permitted even though editing is not.

Read-only describes online content or a system that can be viewed or downloaded by a user but not edited, modified, or deleted by them. In a CRIS or repository context, this typically describes access granted to a metadata record, a deposited file, or a database view: a user with read-only access can retrieve and display the content but has no permission to alter it, distinguishing their access level from an editor, contributor, or administrator role with write permissions.

Read-only status is a permissions property, not a statement about content availability more broadly. A record can be read-only and openly accessible to anyone, read-only and restricted to an authenticated group, or read-only pending a separate embargo. It is a narrower, access-control concept than sharing, which describes the broader question of how discoverable, accessible, and reusable a work is to others.

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Read only"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/read-only" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/read-only",
  "name": "Read only",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/read-only",
  "description": "Online content (data or information) that is capable of being displayed but not modified or deleted.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-outputs#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/read-only",
  "sameAs": [
    "http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/read_only.html",
    "without permission"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-08-17T01:54:14",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}