ResourceDescription represents the shared characteristics common to both abstract and resource version descriptions. ResourceDescription is an abstract type and, as such, cannot be directly created. Resource descriptions are Changeable, meaning that they have identity and can be created, updated and deleted.

the (or a) definitive URI that represents the resource being described. Note that this is NOT the URI of the resource description in the CTS2 format, but of the resource itself. As an example, the about URI for the Wine ontology would be "http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/PR-owl-guide-20031209/wine#". The NCI Thesaurus has, amongst others, the about URI of http://ncicb.nci.nih.gov/xml/owl/EVS/Thesaurus.owl#. HL7 uses ISO Object Identifiers (OIDs) to label resources so, from the HL7 perspective, the about URI of the NCI Thesaurus would be "urn:oid:2.16.840.1.113883.3.26.1.1"

the formal or officially assigned name of this resource, if any

additional identifiers that are used to index and locatethe resource

the class(es) that this resource instantiates

a textual summary of the resource - what it is, what it is for, etc.

a reference to a document thatprovide additional information about the resource

a reference to an individual, organization of bibliographic reference that participated in the creation, validation, review, dissemination of this resource and therole(s) they played

copyright and IP information. Note that rights applies to the source resource, not the CTS2 rendering.

an additional note or comment about the resource

additional information about the resource that doesnot fit into any of the attributes described above

an alternative identifier that uniquely names this resource in other environments as contexts. As an example, if a resource had both an ISO Object Identifier and a DNS name, the DNS name might be assigned as the entryID of the resource by one service while the ISO OID would be recorded as an alternateURI using the "urn:oid" prefix. Note that alternateIds can be added or removed during resource updates.

a DirectoryURI that references the set of statements that were used to construct the containing resource. This attribute must (may?) be present if and only if the service supports the Statement profile