How to set a contributor’s roles#

A contributor’s roles say how they took part in the work, such as collecting the data or leading the project. Set them when you add someone, or later when what they did becomes clear.

Before you start#

You need to manage the record, which means holding the Can manage level on it or on the record above it. The roles on offer depend on the record’s kind. They are listed on Contributors.

Steps#

  1. Open the record’s page and choose its Contributors tab.

  2. Choose Edit beside the person, or open the menu on the organization’s card and choose Edit roles.

  3. Under “What they did on” the record’s kind, tick every role that applies. Untick a role to take it away. A contributor does not need a role, and one with none is listed without one.

  4. Choose Save.

The result#

You arrive back on the Contributors tab, which reads the contributor’s name followed by “was saved.” The roles appear as badges beside the contributor.

Roles are credit. They never change what the person may do on the record, and changing them leaves their level as it was. The same screen sets a person’s organization and level, and everything on it is saved together, so a refusal on one part saves nothing.

Roles decide who the record’s citation names. A project’s and a dataset’s citation names the people with the Creator role, a sample’s names its Collectors, and a measurement’s names the people with the Collection role. The order they are named in is set separately. See How to put contributors in order.