prov:Agent

#PROV-O#RDF Class#Agent#Entity Detail

The prov:Agent class identifies entities that take responsibility for actions or data in provenance models. In SDL, prov:Agent is used to associate people, systems, or organizations with datasets, samples, workflows, or activities.

Definition

URI: http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#Agent

An prov:Agent is something that bears some form of responsibility for an activity taking place, for the existence of an entity, or for another agent’s activity.

Usage in SDL

In SDL, prov:Agent is used to:

Attribute dataset creation or processing to people or systems
Link activities to executing agents
Support traceability and accountability in workflows
Represent both human and non-human actors (e.g., instruments, scripts)

Agents may be used as:

prov:wasAttributedTo target for prov:Entity
prov:wasAssociatedWith target for prov:Activity

Properties

Property	Description	Optional
prov:actedOnBehalfOf	Identifies a delegation relationship between agents	Yes
prov:atLocation	Physical or digital location of the agent	Yes
foaf:name	Name of the agent	No
foaf:mbox	Email address	Yes
foaf:homepage	Web page or profile link	Yes
dcterms:identifier	Agent identifier	Yes
rdf:type	Used to distinguish types like foaf:Person, prov:SoftwareAgent, prov:Organization	No

Composition

Agents in SDL are usually subclassed or typed with more specific classes like:

foaf:Person
prov:SoftwareAgent
prov:Organization

ex:agent1 a prov:Agent , foaf:Person ;
  foaf:name "Dr. Alice Example" ;
  dcterms:identifier "alice@example.org" .

Examples

Dataset Attribution

ex:dataset1 a dcat:Dataset , prov:Entity ;
  dcterms:title "Root Zone Temperature Readings" ;
  prov:wasAttributedTo ex:agent1 .

ex:agent1 a prov:Agent , prov:SoftwareAgent ;
  foaf:name "Sensor Platform A" .

Software Agent

ex:scriptAgent a prov:Agent , prov:SoftwareAgent ;
  foaf:name "Automated QC Script" ;
  dcterms:identifier "agent:script-qc-2023" ;
  foaf:homepage <https://example.org/scripts/qc> .

ex:activity1 a prov:Activity ;
  prov:wasAssociatedWith ex:scriptAgent ;
  prov:startedAtTime "2023-07-01T10:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime .

Organization and Delegation

ex:labOrg a prov:Agent , prov:Organization ;
  foaf:name "Soil Ecology Lab" ;
  dcterms:identifier "org:soil-ecology" .

ex:technicianB a prov:Agent , foaf:Person ;
  foaf:name "Technician B" ;
  prov:actedOnBehalfOf ex:labOrg .

ex:activity2 a prov:Activity ;
  prov:wasAssociatedWith ex:technicianB ;
  prov:startedAtTime "2024-04-01T09:30:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime .

prov:Entity — the thing that was created or modified
prov:Activity — the process or execution trace
foaf:Person, prov:Organization — subclasses of prov:Agent

INTERSECT Scientific Data Layer (SDL)