Most research-information standards work published today publish free-text guidance on
research data management. CASRAI’s own Dictionary takes a different, more concrete
approach for one specific kind of data-quality problem: fields that should only ever hold
one of a fixed, agreed set of values. This guide explains how that mechanism — the
picklist — actually works inside CASRAI’s own infrastructure, what is really published
today, and how to browse, query, or reuse it.
What a picklist is in the CASRAI Dictionary
A picklist is a controlled value-list: a closed, enumerated set of permitted values for a
field. Where a free-text field invites inconsistency — “Accepted Manuscript” versus
“accepted-ms” versus “AAM” for the same concept — a picklist constrains the field to one
of an agreed set, so that every system storing or exchanging the record uses the same
value. Picklists are the controlled-vocabulary primitive the rest of the
CASRAI Dictionary is built on.
The three-layer vocabulary model
CASRAI’s Dictionary is structured in three layers, and understanding how they fit
together is the key to using picklists correctly rather than treating them as a
standalone list:
- Dictionary terms — the primary
entries: an operational definition of a single concept, with worked examples and
counter-examples. - Object templates — structured
record types such as Award, Book, or Conference Paper (123
published as of the current v2026.1 release). Each template is a set of fields, each
field with a declared data type. - Picklists — where a field’s value must come from a closed set, the
field is bound to a picklist rather than left as free text or a single dictionary-term
reference.
In other words: an object template’s field is bound to either a dictionary term (for a
single defined concept) or a picklist (for a closed set of permitted values) — never
both. A field such as “Role” on a Person-affiliation record is a picklist case; a field
such as “Funder” pointing at a single organisation concept is a dictionary-term case.
What’s actually published today: 10 picklists
As of the current CASRAI Dictionary release (v2026.1), 10
picklists are published. Two are still in development — their value sets are being
drafted by the relevant working group and are not yet populated, which the Dictionary’s
own picklist pages state plainly rather than showing an empty table with no explanation.
That is worth knowing before assuming every named picklist is ready to bind a field to
today.
| Picklist | Enumerated values | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Output Types | 35 | Published |
| Output ID Types | 21 | Published |
| Contributor Roles | 14 | Published |
| Licence Types | 8 | Published |
| Reviewer Roles | 5 | Published |
| Review Types | 2 | Published |
| Person ID Types | 2 | Published |
| Org ID Types | 2 | Published |
| Field of Application | 0 | In development |
| Research Classification | 0 | In development |
Each picklist page renders its full value set as a table, with a definition where one
exists, and each publishes a Schema.org DefinedTermSet block so the list can
be consumed as linked data, not just read by a human. Every picklist carries a persistent
identifier in the form casrai:picklist/<slug>, shown on its page
alongside a citation widget.
Worked example: the Contributor Roles picklist is CRediT
The clearest illustration of how a CASRAI picklist gets used is one CASRAI did not have
to invent: the Contributor Roles
picklist’s 14 values and definitions are the CRediT taxonomy — Conceptualization, Data
Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project
Administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing –
Original Draft, and Writing – Review & Editing. See the full role-by-role reference at
/credit, including a dedicated page per role such as
/credit/roles/conceptualization.
This matters for attribution, and it’s a genuine exception to the Dictionary’s default
licensing that’s easy to miss: CRediT is formally stewarded by NISO as
ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022, not by CASRAI alone. The
Dictionary mirrors it with sameAs pointers back to the canonical definitions
at casrai.org/credit rather than re-publishing an independent copy. If you reuse the
Contributor Roles picklist specifically — for example, binding a “Role” field in a
submission system to these 14 values — attribute NISO and the standard designation, not
just CASRAI, per the guidance on CASRAI’s licensing page.
Every other picklist on this page follows the Dictionary’s default CC-BY 4.0 terms
without that extra step.
Worked example: binding a licence field to a picklist
A more typical case: a repository or CRIS records the licence under which a research
output is shared. Left as free text, that field accumulates “CC-BY”, “cc by 4.0”, “CC
BY”, and “Creative Commons Attribution” as four different strings meaning the same thing.
The Licence Types picklist closes that
field to 8 enumerated values (the CC BY / BY-NC / BY-ND / BY-SA / BY-NC-ND / BY-NC-SA
family, plus adjacent values), each carrying a plain-language definition and a link to
the licence’s canonical Creative Commons URL. Binding a system’s “Licence” field to this
picklist, the same way an object template field does
internally, is the practical payoff of using a picklist instead of a free-text field.
How to access the picklists
Browse
/dictionary/picklists lists all 10 with their value
counts; each links through to its own page at
/dictionary/picklist/<slug>, showing the full enumerated set,
definitions where they exist, and — where a picklist value has been linked through — the
corresponding dictionary term for a fuller definition.
Query programmatically
The Dictionary is served headlessly, with GraphQL as the primary query interface. A
single picklist can be fetched by slug:
query P($slug: ID!) {
picklist(id: $slug, idType: SLUG) {
id
slug
title
excerpt
picklistValues { value definition dictionaryTermSlug }
canonicalUri
legacySource
}
}
or the full set listed and paginated via the picklists connection. Full
GraphQL documentation, including authentication for write operations, is at
/implement/graphql. A narrower, cacheable REST surface
alongside it is documented at /implement/rest, useful for
build-time scripts or static-site pipelines that prefer plain HTTP requests over a query
language.
Bulk export
/dictionary/download exports the whole Dictionary —
terms, object templates, and picklists together — as a versioned release archive,
including a JSON-LD DefinedTermSet format intended for structured-data
consumers and headless-site integrations, so a system that needs all 10 picklists at once
doesn’t need to page through the API one at a time.
Licensing, versioning, and governance
Picklists follow the same governance as the rest of the Dictionary. An editorial board
sets policy and ratifies releases; working groups (one per domain) propose, draft, and
review entries, including picklist value sets. Releases are twice-yearly (target: March
and September), versioned as vYYYY.N — the current release is v2026.1.
Identifiers are immutable: a deprecated value doesn’t disappear, it continues resolving
and points to its successor via a replaced-by relationship, so a system that
stored the old value doesn’t silently break.
Everything in the Dictionary, including every picklist, is published under
CC-BY 4.0 by default — free to reuse and adapt in your own
systems with attribution to CASRAI, no paywall and no registration required. The one
documented exception is the Contributor Roles picklist described above, where the
underlying CRediT standard’s own NISO stewardship applies on top of CASRAI’s licence.
New dictionary terms can be proposed by anyone via the
contribute flow; picklist value sets are drafted and reviewed by the relevant working
group as part of the normal release cycle described above rather than through that same
public form — if a system integrator needs a value added to an existing picklist, that’s
a question for the working group process, not a self-service edit.
Frequently asked questions
Are all 10 picklists ready to bind a production field to?
Eight are populated and stable in the current release. Two — Field of Application and
Research Classification — are named and reserved but currently have zero published
values while the relevant working group drafts them; check a picklist’s own page for its
current value count before relying on it in production.
How is a picklist different from a dictionary term?
A dictionary term defines a single concept in prose, with an operational definition and
examples. A picklist enumerates a closed set of permitted values for a field. The two are
related, not interchangeable: a picklist’s individual values can link through to a
dictionary term for a fuller definition, but the picklist itself is the constrained
value-list, not a definition.
How is a picklist different from an object template?
An object template assembles many fields into a complete record type — the shape of an
“Award” or a “Book” as a system would store it. A picklist is one layer below that: the
controlled value-list a single field on a template may be bound to. An object template
can have several fields, each bound to a different picklist or dictionary term.
Can I query a picklist programmatically instead of browsing it on-site?
Yes — via the GraphQL picklist/picklists fields documented at
/implement/graphql, or the REST namespace documented at
/implement/rest. Both are read-only and public for existing
picklists; no authentication is required to fetch them.
Why does the Contributor Roles picklist need different attribution from the others?
Because its content isn’t originally CASRAI’s own vocabulary — it’s the CRediT taxonomy,
formally stewarded by NISO as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. CASRAI mirrors it in the Dictionary
for consistency with the rest of the picklist infrastructure, but the standard’s own
stewardship still applies when you reuse it. Every other picklist on the site follows the
Dictionary’s plain CC-BY 4.0 terms.
For the wider research data management picture this fits into — data management plans,
repository selection, and data availability statements — see the
Research Data Management cluster hub.
