Property talk:P50

From Wikidata
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Documentation

author
main creator(s) of a written work (use on works, not humans); use P2093 (author name string) when Wikidata item is unknown or does not exist
DescriptionMain creator(s) of a written work. See also creator (P170).
Representsauthor (Q482980), writer (Q36180), creator (Q2500638)
Data typeItem
Domain
According to this template: work (Q386724)
According to statements in the property:
work (Q386724), version, edition or translation (Q3331189), fictional creative work (Q15306849), book (Q571), collection (Q2668072), book series (Q277759), sketch (Q55760865), saying (Q3026787), message (Q628523), group of works (Q17489659), song (Q7366) or publication by electronic means (Q15938550)
When possible, data should only be stored as statements
Allowed valuesPersons (note: this should be moved to the property statements)
Usage notesuse P2093 when Wikidata item is unknown or does not exist
ExamplePride and Prejudice (Q170583)Jane Austen (Q36322)
Iliad (Q8275)Homer (Q6691)
The Lord of the Rings (Q15228)J. R. R. Tolkien (Q892)
Anna Karenina (Q147787)Leo Tolstoy (Q7243)
Mp3tag (Q1951383)Florian Heidenreich (Q60463390)
Ludwigslied (Q1751798) → unknown
Robot and gadget jobsDeltaBot does the following jobs:
Tracking: sameno label (Q42533315)
Tracking: differencesno label (Q55283213)
Tracking: usageCategory:Pages using Wikidata property P50 (Q20990018)
Tracking: local yes, WD nono label (Q29109781)
See alsoauthor name string (P2093), notable work (P800), list of works (P1455), lyricist (P676), librettist (P87), creator (P170), affiliation string (P6424)
Lists
  • <search Commons for files with depicts-statement and this property as qualifier>
  • Items with no other statements
  • Most recently created items
  • Items with novalue claims
  • Items with unknown value claims
  • Usage history (total)
  • Database reports/Complex constraint violations/P50
  • Database reports/Constraint violations/P50
  • Map
  • Random list
  • Proposal discussionProposal discussion
    Current uses
    Total33,315,476
    Main statement33,260,35699.8% of uses
    Qualifier28,527<0.1% of uses
    Reference26,593<0.1% of uses
    Search for values
    [create Create a translatable help page (preferably in English) for this property to be included here]
    Allowed entity types are Wikibase item (Q29934200), Wikibase MediaInfo (Q59712033): the property may only be used on a certain entity type (Help)
    Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
    List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P50#Entity types
    Scope is as main value (Q54828448), as reference (Q54828450), as qualifier (Q54828449): the property must be used by specified way only (Help)
    Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
    List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P50#Scope, SPARQL
    Conflicts with “instance of (P31): single (Q134556), album (Q482994), extended play (Q169930): this property must not be used with the listed properties and values. (Help)
    Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
    List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P50#Conflicts with P31, SPARQL
    Conflicts with “instance of (P31): musical work/composition (Q105543609), song (Q7366): this property must not be used with the listed properties and values. (Help)
    Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
    List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P50#Conflicts with P31, SPARQL
    Conflicts with “operating system (P306): this property must not be used with the listed properties and values. (Help)
    Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
    List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P50#Conflicts with P306, search, SPARQL
    Conflicts with “software version identifier (P348): this property must not be used with the listed properties and values. (Help)
    Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
    List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P50#Conflicts with P348, search, SPARQL
    Conflicts with “instance of (P31): podcast episode (Q61855877), podcast (Q24634210): this property must not be used with the listed properties and values. (Help)
    Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
    List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P50#Conflicts with P31, SPARQL
    Conflicts with “instance of (P31): manuscript (Q87167), illuminated manuscript (Q48498), miscellaneous manuscript (Q2217259): this property must not be used with the listed properties and values. (Help)
    Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
    List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P50#Conflicts with P31, SPARQL
    None of anonymous (Q4233718): value must not be any of the specified items.
    Replacement property:
    Replacement values: somevalue (Help)
    Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
    List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P50#none of, SPARQL
    Duplicate between author and short author name at a given position in an authoring list
    Identical series ordinal (P1545) for both a author (P50) and a author name string (P2093) statement (Help)
    Violations query: select ?item ?interval where { ?item p:P2093 ?shortauthor . ?item p:P50 ?fullauthor . ?shortauthor pq:P1545 ?interval . ?fullauthor pq:P1545 ?interval . }
    List of this constraint violations: Database reports/Complex constraint violations/P50#Duplicate between author and short author name at a given position in an authoring list
    This property is being used by:

    Please notify projects that use this property before big changes (renaming, deletion, merge with another property, etc.)

    Anonymous writer

    [edit]

    I was wondering if this property would be the right place to add "anonymous writer" as a value (I could only find the element "anonymity"). Another possibility would be to use "instance of" anonymous work. Andreasm háblame / just talk to me 22:27, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

    This message is old, but I'll reply to it for further reference anyway. For anonymous works, please use the special value "unknown". --Wylve (talk) 13:58, 25 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
    Is this "special value" the same as anonymous (Q4233718)? --EncycloPetey (talk) 23:00, 13 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
    No, it's like a mode of entry. If you can refer to an item such as 'anon.' at all, you are in "custom" mode. There is also "unknown" mode and "no value" mode. These are represented by three rectangles to the left of a statement. Arlo Barnes (talk) 06:18, 21 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

    Ambiguous

    [edit]

    This property is a bit confusing; I've taken (x author y) to mean "y is the author of x", rather than the other way around. Qwertyus (talk) 17:03, 26 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

    Is playwright author or creator?

    [edit]

    Trying to get a handle on whether it is preferred for a playwright to be listed as the author or the creator (P170) creator of a work? If someone has a knowledgeable opinion, it would be useful to add it to the aliases. Thanks.  — billinghurst sDrewth 00:00, 6 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

    Well, judging from the property descriptions, P170 is the "maker of a creative work [...] (where no more specific property exists)". With P50 there is a specific property existing for the "creator of a written work". And as a play is a written work, author should be used as it's more specific than creator. --YMS (talk) 09:00, 6 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

    constraint report relating to Wikimedia disambiguation page (Q4167410)

    [edit]

    If instance of (P31) is a Wikimedia disambiguation page (Q4167410) the presence of author (P50) is prohibited

    see: Wikimedia disambiguation page (Q4167410) with author (P50) . Usualy there might be more possibilities:
    a) Please identify the non - ambiguation page (WD item) where the property author should be moved;
    "normally" no other statements should be left at the disambiguation page.
    It can happen that a set of properties should be moved to another (a second) WD item, another set to a third WD item etc.
    b) (recomended method:) Verify which language is a disambiguation page and separate it from the rest. Please use Gadget-labelLister.js can be activated at preferences#gadgets to remove all faulty (disambiguation) descriptions after the disambiguation page is separated: Verify the descriptions for the following languages: de, en, fr, es, pt, pt-br, ru, sv which where added by bots long time ago and take a short look at the other language descriptions.
    c) If method b) can not be used because all linked WMF-project language pages are (local) disambiguation pages please create a new WD item and add a proper description in your native language and in English.

    Thanks in advance! gangLeri לערי ריינהארט (talk) 13:03, 27 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

    Today (more then five weeks after the first report) 27 items are found. לערי ריינהארט (talk) 16:41, 4 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

    author as more than one person

    [edit]

    Most of the type violations for the author are cases where the author is some sort of group of people, such as supreme court (Q190752) or duo (Q10648343). I think that these should be acceptable types of "author" since it is a common and accepted practice to attribute works to groups of people. Besides being highly unusual, it would be impractical to add every individual author to a work attributed to more than one person, and would lead to massive duplication of information. Furthermore a publication of a group, such as a supreme court, is more than the sum of its parts; it is not just an assemblage of publications by individuals working alone, but the result of a group discussion. --Haplology (talk) 07:21, 20 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

    +1. "Constraint:Value type" needs to be adjusted. BTW: A group or organisation as author is o.k. but duo (Q10648343) doesn't fit. --Kolja21 (talk) 11:39, 20 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

    @Haplology, Kolja21: what about Integrated Authority File (Q36578) ? Should really author (P50) be used in this case ? Cdlt, VIGNERON (talk) 16:56, 31 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    @VIGNERON: Sorry, I don't understand the question. What has authority control (persons, organisations, places etc.) to do with author (P50)? P50 links to an item (the author). If this item has a GND is secondary. --Kolja21 (talk) 19:45, 31 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    @Kolja21: sorry too, I should have been more specific. Integrated Authority File (Q36578) has the property author (P50) = German National Library (Q27302), Berlin State Library (Q170109), Bavarian State Library (Q256507), Austrian National Library (Q304037). On one hand, it's obvious that this authority database didn't self-create itself and has somthing like an author. On the other hand, it violates (four times) the constraints value type=Q5 and target have P21 (and type = Q386724), qv. Special:ConstraintReport/Q36578. There is the general case (nad most of the case in Wikidata:Database reports/Constraint violations/P50 is institution used in P50) plus this specific case where I'm not sure if the values are correct or not. Cdlt, VIGNERON (talk) 07:45, 1 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    @VIGNERON: Imho an institution can be used as an author. It's common use in library catalogs. In the special case of the GND operator (P137) = German National Library (Q27302) might be a better solution. ("Von der DNB in Kooperation mit den Verbundpartnern geführte gemeinsame Datei.") --Kolja21 (talk) 18:16, 1 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    @VIGNERON: Imho an institution can be used as an author. It's common use in library catalogs. In the special case of the GND operator (P137) might be a better solution. --Kolja21 (talk) 18:11, 1 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    There is different problem here : 1. i'm not sure if institution should be allowed as author, but that's clearly not what the constraints say right now. In my opinion, the author is de facto always one or more human. When we says « supreme court » is the author, it make sens; but to be more exact and precise (like should Wikidata be) the juges of the suprem court are the author (in the name of the court but that's an other point). 2. is this specific 4 institutions really author of the GND? I've looked for sources but I couldn't find any (und mein Deutsch is nicht sehr gut :(). operator (P137) = German National Library (Q27302) seems better. Cdlt, VIGNERON (talk) 18:28, 1 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    1. The constraints should be changed. Being exact means naming the author as it is named by the source. (Everything else would be speculation. We don't know if a judge has written the text or one of his assistance etc.) 2. The "authors" of the GND are the main institutions who edit the GND. Since every work should have an author, there is no perfect solution in this case. --Kolja21 (talk) 18:42, 1 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    About SchemaOrg relation

    [edit]

    There are also creator and author

    Allow also pseudonyms as author

    [edit]

    I changed the first constraint such that also pseudonym (Q61002) or subclasses of it are allowed values. It happens that a book is published under a pseudonym and sometimes there are pseudonyms with more than one person behind it. Moreover, it seems than only logical to delete also the gender constraint, which I did. --Zuphilip (talk) 13:20, 2 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

    Seems good to me, thank you Zuphilip. Cdlt, VIGNERON (talk) 10:25, 26 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

    Allow also organization (Q43229) as author

    [edit]

    Given that the previous discussions and the fact that this is quite commonly done, I've added organization (Q43229) as an acceptable value (obviously, it's open to discussion, feel free to comment or even revert if you feel the need).

    Cdlt, VIGNERON (talk) 10:56, 26 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

    Yeah, that looks fine for me and I was also thinking about it. The database report just decreased after your change from 5.500 value-type-violations to 1.700, which is good. --Zuphilip (talk) 21:25, 30 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

    Can be used as qualifier of reference URL (P854)?

    [edit]

    Can this property be used as qualifiers of references?--Malore (talk) 14:10, 5 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

    type constraint vs. Q7725310 (series of creative works)

    [edit]

    It seems logical that one can assign an author to a series of creative works; however I'm getting a type constraint warning. --Candalua (talk) 10:03, 2 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

    contemporary constraint

    [edit]

    On The Cyclops (Q22116758), adding author (P50) Euripides (Q48305) causes a "contemporary constraint" warning to appear because the edition was published in 1824, which is not contemporary with Ancient Greece, when the original was written.

    The "contemporary constraint" is going to cause lots and lots of error messages, because editions of works continue to be published long after an author has died. --EncycloPetey (talk) 03:01, 18 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Remove the constraint. - PKM (talk) 22:13, 3 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    This is typically the reason why constraint are not mandatory. This can catch real errors but there is legitimate exceptions, maybe a lot. Don’t we have a legitimate whitelist mechanism that could handle this ? And if the list is really long, could we not add a whole class such as « work first published after the death of the author » or something like this (@Lucas Werkmeister (WMDE):) author  TomT0m / talk page 17:05, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    @EncycloPetey, PKM, Jheald, TomT0m: is it usual to add author (P50) to edition items? Help:Sources#Books only instructs users to add it to the work item.
    In response to the question, though – currently, the only way to specify constraint exceptions is to add exception to constraint (P2303) qualifiers to the constraint statement, which doesn’t scale well. (T169374 is another proposal for improved exceptions.) --Lucas Werkmeister (WMDE) (talk) 17:14, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    It depends on the editor. Some contributors here feel the authorship belongs only on the data item for the work, and should not be duplicated on editions. Other contributors note that editions may display the name of an author as a pseudonym or pen name, and so place the author information of editions and translations as well as on the work. There is some merit in both views. --EncycloPetey (talk) 18:00, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    And many editions don't have a page for the work. Jheald (talk) 18:04, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    Many non-fiction editions have additional or different editors/authors over time. This is especially common with textbooks and reference works, where new material is incorporated in later editions. Compare Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles (Q28888841) and The Fairchild Books Dictionary of Textiles (Q29047171), which are both editions of Dictionary of Textiles (Q28937006) originally published in 1915.
    FWIW, I always include authors in edition items because the edition is the item that is used as a reference and in my opionion should contain all of the information necessary to format a proper citation. - PKM (talk) 20:23, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    With the « exception class » property, it could be possible to put all editions items in exceptions, which would be really convenient.
         Any item « Any item with an author should be contemporary to this author execpt editions »
    
    would be possible to express. author  TomT0m / talk page 07:37, 3 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    @Lucas Werkmeister (WMDE): I added this as a comment on this ticket. Is it worth creating a whole new ticket for this ? author  TomT0m / talk page 07:45, 3 August 2019 (UTC) [reply]
    ...Except that the first publication date can be long after the author's death. In those cases, the date of (first) publication given on the work item will violate the constraint as you've stated it, because the author died before publication. For example, The Silmarillion (Q79762) was first published four years after the death of its author J. R. R. Tolkien (Q892). There are even cases where "lost" works of classical authors are found and published centuries after the death of the author. --EncycloPetey (talk) 14:40, 3 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    Please read my first message :) It’s possible to adopt the exact same approach by creating a class « work first published after the death of the author » and putting these one as well in the exception position. author  TomT0m / talk page 16:52, 3 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    Actually that seems to be posthumous work (Q17518461) so there is no need to create the class. It’s true that there is a little less than 14000 candidatesmore like 12000 candidates which is (still) a lot (although there is probably ways to narrow it down). However there is also wikipedia categories like en:Category:Works_published_posthumously that can help handling some of them automatically. author  TomT0m / talk page 17:09, 3 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    And playing with a few samples, it seems useful. For example Silent Spring (Q591623) appears in the result and seem to have at the time of this post two first publication dates, one imported from wikipedia that seems wrong, the other one sourced by an article stating the first publication in The New Yorker (self sourced). I just put a better ranked on the sourced one, but the other might have to be deleted or deprecated. author  TomT0m / talk page 17:24, 3 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    I don’t know if it’s pure luck, but … HTTPS://WWW.WIKIDATA.ORG/WIKI/Q661997 also seems a false positive as it’s one of the two sonnets that had been published in another work beforehand … frwiki new this, not Wikidata author  TomT0m / talk page 18:02, 3 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Other works

    [edit]

    Why this is limited just to the written work? Is there a reason for that? What property I can use to indicate the author of a photograph or whatever another type of work? Juandev (talk) 16:20, 5 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    @Juandev: A photograph does not have an "author", it has a "photographer" or person who took the photograph using a camera. You could use creator (P170), which is used for artists, including painters and sculptors. --EncycloPetey (talk) 22:51, 5 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    I see.--Juandev (talk) 23:16, 5 September 2019 (UTC) And what to use, when they dont have an item on Wikidata, when Id like to indicate photographer, but there is no reason to create him/her an item? --Juandev (talk) 23:19, 5 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    I don't understand your question. --EncycloPetey (talk) 02:13, 6 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    I mean, there is author name string (P2093) which is for authors, who doesnt have an item. What about a property for photographer, who doesnt have an item?--Juandev (talk) 09:38, 6 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    There probably should be a "creator name string". You could propose the property for creation. It should be an easy vote and easy creation, since it would exactly parallel an existing property. --EncycloPetey (talk) 15:43, 6 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    We had that at Wikidata:Property proposal/creator name string. Also, I think Commons has some features in the works for photographers. Maybe ask at c:Commons talk:Structured data. 17:07, 6 September 2019 (UTC)--- Jura

    @Juandev, EncycloPetey, Jura1: IMHO creator (P170) and author (P50) should be merged. There is no reason why to have a specific property just for authors/creators of text works, when authors/creators of all other types of works have creator (P170). Possibly some others should be merged also (architect (P84), discoverer or inventor (P61) etc.). Unfortunately, so far the attempts at structured data seem like a huge unstructured and unstructurable chaos.

    Btw., it is also an unsystematical way to duplicate author (P50) with author name string (P2093). We could then create a paired property in the same way for many other properties. Not only "Creator" and "Creator name string", but also "Street" and "Street name string", "Surname" and "Surname string", "Given name" and "Given name string", "Location" and "Location name string" etc. etc. Thoughtless from the very beginning. Combo boxes are known for a long time - was it so difficult to come up with a combined datatype in time? --ŠJů (talk) 21:03, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

    The two ideas are not synonymous. A work of art can have a "creator", but not an "author". A written work can have multiple authors. A film can have multiple kinds of creators, including an author of the script, a producer, director, etc., all of which are "creators" but not all of which are authors. An author is a subclass of creator, it is not a synonym.
    The author name string (P2093) exists for database downloads where the text has not been matched with a data item. It is not a "duplicate"; it is a temporary substitute until an editor can sort out which data item should be the author. --EncycloPetey (talk) 23:54, 24 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

    Property P570, date of death, as a valid qualifier

    [edit]

    Having property P570, date of death, as a valid qualifier would ease determinations of whether works are in the public domain, enabling editors to see at a glance whether an author has been dead the requisite amount of time. Because it is both useful and innocuous, I am taking the liberty of changing it without approval from other editors. Please reverse it if there is some negative inevitability I hadn’t considered. —Elyaqim (talk) 17:14, 13 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

    "Last, First" for references rather than "First Last"

    [edit]

    You are invited to join the discussion at Wikidata:Project_chat/Archive/2020/09#"Last, First" for references rather than "First Last". {{u|Sdkb}}talk 03:38, 20 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

    When an individual is part of a team credited as the author

    [edit]

    I'm finding articles where an individual, who is part of the team that is named as an author of the article, lists the article in their works on ORCID. Should we list that individual as an author, even if there is a {P|50}} or author name string (P2093)? If so, what qualifiers would be appropriate, e.g. object named as (P1932)?

    If the individual author isn't credited individually as as an author on the paper (but is part of the credited team), I think editors should add series ordinal (P1545), object named as (P1932) the team named, and adding ORCID as a reference, as stated in (P248) ORCID Public Data File 2020 (Q104707600), ORCID iD (P496) the author's ORCID ID, and the date the editor retrieved the author's info from ORCID. Is this an accepted practice? As an example of this proposed practice, see Q57862689. Trilotat (talk) 16:34, 24 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

    Label in French

    [edit]

    The label on French now includes male and female form following this request for comments : Wikidata:Requests for comment/How to avoid to use male form as a generic form in property labels in French ?. PAC2 (talk) 04:59, 14 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

    We have taken the decision collectively to use male and female form. Do please Jmax, don't revert it Special:MobileDiff/1706888711. PAC2 (talk) 09:13, 18 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

    What to do when software has an author/writer?

    [edit]

    What property should you use to indicate that someone has worked as an author to contribute to the literary aspect of a piece of software? Using the author (P50) property is a constraint violation. For games, I see screenwriter (P58), but what about for software that is not a video game? Imagine a choose your own adventure book that is released as an app. It is both a literary work (with an author) and a piece of software (with a developer). It's also not a video game. I'm thinking specifically about how to handle works of electronic literature (Q173167) and digital poetry (Q919982).

    Look at Loss of Grasp (Q109237816). It is a literary work (Q7725634) that won the New Media Writing Prize (Q108459688). It is also a piece of software that uses Adobe Flash (Q165658) as the software engine (P408). But if we were to add instance of (P31) software (Q7397) that would be a constraint violation for author (P50).

    Would it be possible to make an exception to the constraint to allow author (P50) on instance of (P31) software (Q7397) provided that the item also has instance of (P31) literary work (Q7725634)?

    Colin R Robinson (talk) 11:09, 4 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]