Multiple authors in RDF feed dc namespace

[Domysee]

The Nature feed (https://www.nature.com/nature.rss) is an RDF feed where every item can have multiple dc:creator elements.
For example:

<item rdf:about="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09861-8">
    <title><![CDATA[Author Correction: A metallic <i>p</i>-wave magnet with commensurate spin helix]]></title>
    <link>https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09861-8</link>
    <content:encoded>
                <![CDATA[<p>Nature, Published online: 19 November 2025; <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09861-8">doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09861-8</a></p>Author Correction: A metallic <i>p</i>-wave magnet with commensurate spin helix]]></content:encoded>
    <dc:title><![CDATA[Author Correction: A metallic <i>p</i>-wave magnet with commensurate spin helix]]></dc:title>
    <dc:creator>Rinsuke Yamada</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Max T. Birch</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Priya R. Baral</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Shun Okumura</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Ryota Nakano</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Shang Gao</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Motohiko Ezawa</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Takuya Nomoto</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Jan Masell</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Yuki Ishihara</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Kamil K. Kolincio</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Ilya Belopolski</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Hajime Sagayama</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Hironori Nakao</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Kazuki Ohishi</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Takashi Ohhara</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Ryoji Kiyanagi</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Taro Nakajima</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Yoshinori Tokura</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Taka-hisa Arima</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Yukitoshi Motome</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Moritz M. Hirschmann</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Max Hirschberger</dc:creator>
    <dc:identifier>doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09861-8</dc:identifier>
    <dc:source>Nature, Published online: 2025-11-19; | doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09861-8</dc:source>
    <dc:date>2025-11-19</dc:date>
    <prism:publicationName>Nature</prism:publicationName>
    <prism:doi>10.1038/s41586-025-09861-8</prism:doi>
    <prism:url>https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09861-8</prism:url>
</item>

The FBI feed (https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/RSS) has items with multiple dc:subject elements.

<item
    rdf:about="https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/fbi-investigating-drug-trafficking-conspiracy-allegedly-involving-14-law-enforcement-officials-in-the-mississippi-delta">
    <title>FBI Investigating Drug Trafficking Conspiracy Allegedly Involving 14 Law Enforcement
        Officials in the Mississippi Delta</title>
    <link>
        https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/fbi-investigating-drug-trafficking-conspiracy-allegedly-involving-14-law-enforcement-officials-in-the-mississippi-delta</link>
    <description>Fourteen local law enforcement officials in the Mississippi Delta have been
        arrested and charged for their alleged roles in a drug trafficking conspiracy, the FBI and
        the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi announced on October 30.</description>

    <dc:publisher>No publisher</dc:publisher>
    <dc:rights></dc:rights>
    <dc:subject>Violent Crime</dc:subject>
    <dc:subject>Director/FBI Leadership</dc:subject>
    <dc:subject>Director Patel</dc:subject>
    <dc:date>2025-10-31T09:00:00Z</dc:date>
    <dc:type>Story</dc:type>
</item>

The dc.creator, dc.contributor, and dc:subject fields are single strings. Does it make sense to change them into arrays to accommodate the possibility of multiple creators and contributors?

---

As an aside, love the library and its philosophy!

[macieklamberski]

Hi Dominik, thanks for the suggestion. I totally agree that fields in DC (and DC Terms) should be plural. I've already created two draft PRs with those exact changes:

• feat: Add plural variants for DC fields and deprecate singular #160
• feat: Add plural variants for DC Terms fields and deprecate singular #161

What's blocking me from merging them is that these are breaking changes, as some fields have an unfortunate naming (like dc:rights) and I can't keep singular and plural form. Others like dc:creator can be just marked as deprecated + dc:creators for the new plural variant. I'll probably wait with merging those until v3.0.

---

Maybe some intermediary solution would be possible. Add plural support for fields that do not cause breaking changes and are frequently plural. Do you know which of these fields, aside from subject, contributor, and creator, often appear in multiples?

[Domysee]

Oh nice, that's great! And please excuse me not checking the PRs before posting the issue.

Totally makes sense that this is a breaking change and you want to hold off for v3. That said, I'd appreciate an intermediary solution for the fields where it's possible.

Regarding the fields, I haven't seen any besides the mentioned 3, but I also didn't check that many feeds. However I have a (long) list of feeds. If it helps I could build a crawler and check the top 100k feeds and track which fields appear multiple times in an item, and how often that happens.

[macieklamberski]

No need, but thank you. 😊 For DC, it's actually only the dc:rights that's problematic. I will release a new version with the plural DC fields (except rights) in a day or so.