Nonauthor

Nonauthor is a term used in information organization to describe content that has no identifiable individual author. It is applied across a range of materials, including publications, datasets, software, and digital media, where no person or group can be credited as the author. The concept is primarily a metadata and cataloging convenience rather than a formal authorship designation.

The term arises in contexts where authorship is unknown, intentionally omitted, or not applicable. It is distinct from anonymous works, where the author’s identity is withheld by allowance or policy, and from pseudonymous or corporate authorship, where a named but non-individual entity is credited. Nonauthor signals the absence of a specific author field rather than the presence of a named alternative author.

In practical terms, nonauthor affects how items are indexed, searched, and retrieved in catalogs and databases. It can aid users who are seeking works by title, subject, or content rather than by author, but it can also hinder author-based discovery and attribution. For rights and licensing, nonauthor does not imply a particular ownership status; separate metadata fields typically govern copyright, licensing, and provenance.

Usage and interpretation of nonauthor vary by cataloging practice and metadata standard. Some systems may prefer a blank author field or a standardized value such as “Unknown” or “Anonymous,” while others may explicitly use “Nonauthor” as a controlled term. As metadata practices evolve, the handling of non-attributed works remains a common area for consistency and interoperability. See also anonymous, corporate author, metadata standards such as Dublin Core and MARC.