DCATAPn

DCATAPn, short for DCAT Application Profile for Networks, is a standards framework intended to improve interoperability among distributed data catalogs. It extends the DCAT data catalog vocabulary with a network-oriented profile to describe datasets published across multiple catalogs and access points. It supports cross-portal discovery, uniform access policies, and provenance tracking.

Origins and purpose: Developed by an international community of data stewards and standards bodies; published around 2023–2024; aims to facilitate federated search, policy enforcement, and machine-actionable metadata.

Technical approach: It builds on DCAT 2 and DCAT-AP; introduces a set of application profile terms (APn vocabulary) such as apn:requiresAuthentication, apn:accessURL, apn:policy, apn:provenance, apn:startDate; defines constraints for datasets and distributions; includes mapping guidance to DCAT, dcat:Dataset; uses SHACL shapes for validation; supports de-duplication of datasets; includes policy metadata for licensing and data access.

Adoption and usage: Pilot programs in several countries; used by national open data portals; supports multilingual metadata; includes guidelines for catalog interoperability; adoption is evolving due to the framework’s complexity and integration requirements.

Governance and status: Maintained by the DCAT-APn Working Group within the International Data Standards Council; version 1.0 released in 2024; future revisions planned; a conformance suite and test datasets are available to supporting organizations.

See also: Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT), DCAT-AP, Open Data, Metadata standards.